RE LOG Spring '25

68 Ransom Everglades LOG SPRING 2025 In Loving Memory Kevin Edward Norton ’76 passed away unexpectedly on Friday, October 4, 2024, at 66. Throughout his life journey, Kevin developed a great passion for helping those in need. Kevin counseled hundreds of people, guiding them through their personal crises, and saving many along the way in their battles against addiction. It was his mission in life to help others and to give back to the community. His lectures and counseling sessions were moving performances, often involving his therapy dog, Mr. T., as well as music – including many of his own recordings. At a very young age, Kevin’s mother taught him the language of music. His life was always full of music and he was rarely seen without a guitar (or two) hanging from his shoulders. Kevin adored his family and was a dedicated husband, a very proud father and grandfather (PeePaw). His wisdom was profound, and he was always the guy with the answers. Time spent with Kevin as his client or as a member of his beloved family was like being in a philosophy class with his infinite wisdom and lessons from his personal journey of life – all shared in a manner that was warm and full of encouragement. He will be remembered and deeply missed by his wife, Linda Norton; children, Mary Norton Batt (Jeff), Maggie Norton, Nichole Grady (Lance) and Kirk Ciolkosz (Lindsey); siblings, Carol Ann Rogers (Nielsen), Esquire Brian Edward Norton, Mary Beth Durant (Peter) and Patricia Norton; six grandchildren, Cerissa, Bry, Elena, Justin (Natalie), Branden and Victoria; two great-grandchildren, Madelyn and Mason; and many nieces and nephews. Kevin was predeceased by his father, Dr. Edward Norton of Bascom Palmer Eye Institute of Miami, and mother, Mary Norton. Diane Leigh Adkins ’83 passed away peacefully in her sleep on July 27, 2024. Born and raised in Miami, Diane graduated with a degree in studio art from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She was an accomplished visual artist who shared her deep creative passion with her friends and at various institutions, including Palmer Trinity School and Melrose Elementary in Miami. Throughout her life, Diane remained an avid and adventurous traveler who forged lasting friendships across the globe. In recent years she split time between her homes in Miami Beach and Boone, N.C. Diane leaves behind her life partner, Peter Brisbane, and a long cast of friends, acquaintances and many others touched by her loving spirit and unmistakable joie de vivre. Dr. Robert “Bob” Wayne ’74 passed away on December 26, 2022. He was 66. Bob began his faculty career at UCLA as an Assistant Professor in 1992, after serving as the Head of Conservation Genetics at the Zoological Society of London. He rose through the ranks at UCLA, becoming a full professor in 1998 and Distinguished Professor in 2019. He published more than 300 papers throughout his career in top scientific journals. At UCLA, Bob’s genetics research aided in the conservation and management of canid species around the globe. He and his students also used genetic data to show that freeways are a barrier to bobcat and coyote migration, establishing the premise of dedicated tunnels that allow wildlife to cross and maintain healthy populations. Bob, the first to establish a conservation genetics lab at UCLA, helped build a foundation for modern molecular conservation genetics. In 1996 he co-authored “Molecular Genetic Approaches in Conservation,” based on an American Association for the Advancement of Science symposium. In 2016, Bob received a grant from the UC President’s Office to establish a consortium of researchers from six UC campuses to develop new conservation genomics techniques to be shared with the scientific community. During the last few years, Bob offered a new course that took students out of the classroom and into the field at UC Natural Reserve System sites, where they sampled DNA from the environment and documented their observations in online notebooks. In 2017, he was named an HHMI Professor by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute along with his collaborator, UC Santa Cruz professor Beth Shapiro, for this novel approach to teaching.