Norman Boehm Jr.
Norman passed away on May 26, 2016, has been laid to rest, and now awaits the return of his Lord and resurrection by him.
Originally from New Jersey, Norman was born in Dover (Morris County) in 1928 to Carl Norman and Erna Elsa Sehm Boehm and grew up in Washington (Warren County). A graduate of Washington High School, he attended the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks and graduated in 1950 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering following two years in the V-5 U.S. Naval Training Program.
Initially employed after graduation with the Wyandotte Chemicals Corporation of Wyandotte, Michigan, he began his long career in the oil industry joining the Arabian American Oil Company (Aramco) in 1952 at their New York City office. With Aramco until 1974, he spent 16 years in Saudi Arabia and 6 years in their New York office. His job responsibilities included the Ras Tanura Refinery’s “Refiner” for operations planning and direction, refinery process engineer; the Oil Operations Department’s staff liaison engineer; the Engineering Department’s instrumentation engineer, refinery facilities engineer and oil production and refinery project planning engineer.
In 1974, Norman transferred to Exxon Engineering in Florham Park, NJ as a contracts engineer providing contracting services to Exxon’s worldwide affiliates for their oil, gas and refined products projects. His services to affiliates included Esso Malaysia Exploration & Production, Esso France, Esso Argay (Germany) and Esso’s Linden Refinery. In 1976, he was selected as the contracts engineer for the Shell U.K. Exploration & Production and Esso U.K. Exploration & Production’s joint venture North Cormorant Project headquartered in London, England. The project’s directive was to produce 150,000 barrels per day of oil and associated gas from the North Cormorant offshore oil field in 540 feet of water depth. The project became the first successful North Sea development project achieving a significant underrun of its budget, completion on schedule and a perfect safety record. As the senior contracts engineer, Norman supervised the project contracts engineering staff responsible for preparation and award of all project contracts totaling $462 million.
Utilizing competitive bidding procedures exclusively, the contracts staff developed invitation to bid documents and conducted bid review exercises for all project contracts. The contracts encompassed selection of project personnel, engineering studies, facilities design and engineering, facilities fabrication, and offshore installation of facilities that were awarded to European contractors. He often said “The North Cormorant Project was the highlight of my career”.
In 1980, he moved to Esso Exploration & Production Norway’s Odin Project in Stavanger, Norway with similar contracting responsibilities to those above. After taking early retirement from Exxon in 1984, he was employed as a project engineer at DuPont’s Experimental Station responsible for design, detailed engineering, procurement and construction management of projects including modification and modernization of existing laboratory facilities, installation of new pilot plant research facilities and building modification and repairs.
In 1991, Norman joined Pathfinder Inc. of Cherry Hill, NJ as a project management consultant to the energy and chemical industries providing services to Esso Malaysia Exploration & Production, M.W. Kellogg, Hofmann-Laroche Pharmaceutical, Maraven, Lagoven, Kajima Construction, Unoven Oil and Exxon Neftegas Project Services (Sakhalin Island oil development). He retired in 1999.
Norman’s retirement years have been spent enjoying travel to many countries in Asia, South and Central America, U.S. locations and particularly to Poland, his wife Aleksandra’s native country where she is a well-recognized author having published more than 20 books in her native language. Her latest successes include eight books published in English in the U.S. since 2009. Norman was justifiably proud of his relationship to Ingrid Bergman, the famous Swedish actress. Her father and Norman’s paternal grandmother were siblings. Having spent 23 years in foreign assignments, he had the opportunity to visit his famous cousin on many occasions. He also took great pride in his wife’s book about this relationship “Ingrid Bergman and Her American Relatives” published by Hamilton Books in 2013.
Norman and Aleksandra were deeply interested and sympathetic to the plight of Native Americans and support three Indian schools (two in South Dakota, one in Montana) and six Indian charitable organizations, one being the Crazy Horse Memorial in South Dakota whose sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski was Aleksandra’s great uncle. Their other passions include protection for animals both wild and domestic, and they support four charitable organizations accordingly. Last but not least was their love and caring for their devoted felines that accompanied Norman and Aleksandra on their journeys both domestic and overseas. One segment of these travels and other experiences were described in Aleksandra’s book “On the Road with Suzy: From Cat to Companion” published by Purdue University Press in 2010’’.
Norman is survived by his wife Aleksandra, son Erik Norman and his wife Jantze, daughter Kara Lucia and husband Robert Molenhouse ,and four grandsons, son Kurt Stephen and wife Iwona and two grandaughters, one grandson, and stepson Thomas Tomczyk.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests contributions be made to the Red Cloud Indian School, 100 Mission Drive, Pine Ridge, South Dakota, 57770-2100.