Norbert Mitchell Katz
3132nd Signal Service Co
ASN#13135648 Casualty: Wounded
Born 1923 in IL, Died 2007
County of residence at enlistment: Baltimore County, MD
Other residence(s): Baltimore, MD; Elkridge, MD; Gwynn Oak, MD; Columbia, MD; Halethorpe, MD; Fort Myers, FL
United States Army, European Theatre of Operations
Occupation before the war: apprentices to other trades
College education before the war: Temple Univ.
Norbert Katz was born on July 8, 1923 in Chicago, IL, the oldest of three children. His father was an electrician for a motor builder; his father, and all four of his grandparents, had been born in Hungary.
Norbert's father died in 1938, at the age of 38, and his mother took the family to live in Baltimore, MD. She found work as a bookkeeper there, and Norbert graduated from Forest Park High school in 1941. He then attended Temple University in Philadelphia for a year.
When he registered for the draft, on June 30, 1942, he was working for Food Fair, a supermarket chain; probably a summer job. He enlisted on October 21, 1942, and was eventually assigned to the 3132 Signal Service Company. He was a half-track driver, and was wounded in Europe. (A 3132 caption list from 1993 says that he "shot himself accidentally in France." His obituary says that he was wounded in the Battle of the Bulge.) He recovered at a military hospital in England, and was awarded a Purple Heart; he was discharged from the Army on October 30, 1945.
After the war he returned to Baltimore. The 1950 census shows him married to a woman named Esther, with a son Andrew, and working as a life insurance salesman. Sometime after that he established the Maryland Quilting Company which he owned and operated until sometime in the 1960s.
From 1973-1983, he was a computer specialist at the Social Security Administration headquarters in Woodlawn, MD. He then worked in the same capacity for Native American Consultants, US Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the FAA, until retiring in 1989.
Norbert was divorced twice, marrying his third wife, Catherine Hayes, in 1982. He had two more children after Andrew—daughters Sandra and Ruth. He also was father to two stepdaughters. According to his obituary, Norbert "was a book collector and a world traveler. He also enjoyed casino gambling."
Norbert and Catherine moved to Fort Myers, FL in 2006. He died on September 22, 2007 in Fort Myers, of complications from Parkinson's disease, and is buried at United Hebrew Cemetery in Halethorpe, MD.
Sources:
1930 census
https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/24326598:6224?ssrc=pt&tid=18655759&pid=19005550196
1940 census
1942 draft card
https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/5703259:2238?ssrc=pt&tid=18655759&pid=19005550196
1950 census
1959 Baltimore city directory
1995 US Public Records index
https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/62853879:1788?ssrc=pt&tid=18655759&pid=19005550196
2007 Find a Grave record
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/45153213/ka
2007 VA death record
https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/3428035:2441?ssrc=pt&tid=18655759&pid=19005550196
2007 obituary in Baltimore Sun (MD)