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Purple and Gold Key: Alumni President Says UW Opened Doors |
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 UWAA President Norm Proctor, '74, '77. Photo by Mary Levin.
“There was a young lady up in Alaska who had been repairing street holes. She got a government contract, and now she’s building a part of a federal highway,” Proctor says. “I had a young man, a minority, who had a small business putting marble into homes and wanted to take it to the next level. I got him into a Small Business Development Center program, and now, after graduating from that, he’s putting marble into big hotels. He’s a big business now.”
Now Proctor will be using his energy and business acumen to help another organization flourish—one with a special place in his heart. This month, Proctor begins a one-year term as pPresident of the UW Alumni Association Board of Trustees. He will speak on behalf of more than 350,000 living alumni and help chart the course of the UWAA.
“To us, at the SBA, it all centers on having a strong business plan,” he says, “and then the enthusiasm, the fire-in-the-belly, to make it happen. So that’s what we want at the University of Washington Alumni Association. We want to have a strong plan.”
That means building on existing strengths, he says, but also reaching out to populations that may be underrepresented within the organization, and taking the long view. He’s particularly interested in cultivating good relationships with students—starting before they even arrive at the University.
Proctor comes from one of Seattle’s pioneering African American families. He grew up near Madrona Beach, went to Garfield High School, and knew from an early age that he wanted to attend the UW. “I always wanted to be a Husky,” he says.
He earned a bachelor’s in business administration from the University in 1974. Then, with the encouragement of his faculty mentor Charles Z. Smith, ’55, who would later serve on the Washington State Supreme Court, Proctor applied and was accepted to the UW School of Law. There he met his future wife, Marcia, ’79. They’ve been married for over 30 years and have three grown children.
After law school, Proctor worked briefly for a judge before joining PACCAR, where over the course of 23 years he was director of government affairs, director of public affairs and vice president/general manager of the PACCAR Foundation. With the exception of a stint in the Air Force during the Vietnam War, Proctor has risen to his current position without ever working more than a few miles from his boyhood home.
“That’s what gives me so much pride, that I’m really helping my own community,” he says. “That’s why I take pride in helping out the University, too—because I had such a fabulous experience there. I had no knowledge that these doors would open for me. But the key was the University, which helped unlock all of them.”
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