In Memoriam: Norris Legue, Founder of Synthetic Surfaces
Norris Legue, founder of Synthetic Surfaces and “Guru of Glue,” died May 29, 2022 at the age of 85. Norris was a great friend of Parks & Rec Business (PRB) magazine joining us for the first time in the October 2004 issue and showing up each month thereafter for nearly 20 years.
His monthly email with updated ad materials (appearing like clockwork), always started the same formal way… “Dear Rodney” and ended with “Very truly yours,” Norris Legue. It was more like receiving a letter in the mail than an email and always made me smile.
Likewise, he would send me a thank-you email each time we sent him a small gift of appreciation for all his years working with us. The last one we received read: “We want to thank you for thinking of us and sending the lovely chocolate bar. We will have it today for our afternoon snack.”
The thought of him and the rest of his team sitting around having an afternoon snack warmed my heart—and got me thinking. Do people do this? Should I do this? It’s a cool idea, isn’t it?
I know it sounds mundane, but the regular, professional, somewhat formal communication from Norris always left me feeling important and welcome in his world. Of course, meeting him in person at industry shows always left me laughing and feeling good in a different way. I suspect it was the same with everybody in his orbit.
I found out a few things I never thought to ask from Norris’s obituary:
He was born on New Year’s Eve in New Orleans, but spent most of his life in Scotch Plains, N.J.—his house just a short drive from his office. Norris loved visiting new places and seeing new things. His personal philosophy was that life was to be enjoyed. He believed if you like your job, your efforts are rewarding instead of boring. If your earnings from your hard work exceed necessary expenses, spend a lot of it on fun and other things that please you. Norris lived by that rule, loved his job, and worked pretty much up to the day he died.
He graduated from Seton Hall University with a degree in Chemistry. He spent years developing adhesives in the basement of his home, and testing samples by placing them through a window onto the rooftop, and then left them there through all the seasons and weather conditions, to assure their durability. Soon after, he knew he was onto something, and became the founder, president, and owner of Synthetic Surfaces Inc. In about 1969, he developed the first one-part urethane adhesive used successfully to glue down a synthetic-turf football field. He owned six patents. His company’s new generations of NORDOT Adhesives are used to install synthetic turf more than other adhesives in the world. Hence, the reason that his peers dubbed him the “Guru of Glue.”
Norris married Dorothy “Dotty” Samuelson in 1959, and the two were life-long companions until Dotty’s death in 2014. The NORDOT brand name is a combination of Norris’s and Dotty’s name. He is survived by his children Robin Harabin (Robert), Kirk Legue (Peggy), and Karen Hoag (Kevin); his three grandchildren Nancy Verdic, Alyssa Hanly, and Brian Legue; his great-grandson Dylan Verdic; and as well as his aide of four years, Zita, who was by his side at the time of his passing.
