Norm attended the Newark College of Engineering school of the New Jersey Institute of Technology toward earning a degree in electrical engineering. He began his public safety career as a part time telecommunicator for the Buena Borough Police Department in 1968, through appointment as a special officer for the department. This continued until 1969 when he was employed part time with the New Jersey State Police as a Research Engineer, while continuing to work at NJIT toward his engineering degree.
In 1970, he began fulltime with the New Jersey State Police. In 1971 he was a part of the team to address frequency coordination of police and local government channels in the State of New Jersey. During the period until 1986, the Federal Communications Commission recognized each individual frequency coordinator as providing direct input into the licensing process. In 1986 the FCC specified a single point of contact for each radio service coordinator. APCO was the coordinator contact for the police service. Norm was one of four APCO members on the Frequency Coordination Task Force to develop the rules and procedures for consolidation of the various independent frequency coordinators into a group of frequency advisors. Norm became a frequency advisor in 1986 and continued in that position until retiring from the NJ State Police in 1999.
In 1999, Norm joined the consulting firm of RCC Consultants, Inc. as the director of spectrum services. He continued to practice in the spectrum and regulatory area through 2015 when RCC Consultants was acquired by Black & Veatch Corporation. In 2016 Norm resigned from Black & Veatch and began offering regulatory and spectrum services directly to clients; and as a subcontractor to other consultancies.
Some of many accomplishments during the period of frequency coordination included: