Rusty Nowlin

Jackson Branson, Brooklyn Branson, Eddie Sarani, Ana Sarani, Clara Nowlin, Alana Nowlin

Reading, chess (master's USCF rating 2000), classic motion pictures, and writing socio-political commentary for newspapers and on the Internet.

Norton R. Nowlin graduated from JTHS in 1970. Later he spent six years in the Vietnam-era U.S. Marine Corps, where me achieved PFC out of MCRD San Diego boot-camp and subsequently became an avionic aircraft engineering electronics technician for the Marine Air Wing. He subsequently took M.A. and B.A. degrees in the social and behavioral sciences from the University of Texas at Tyler, studied law for one full year at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, in San Diego, California, and earned an ABA-approved advanced paralegal certification with honors from Edmonds Community College, in Lynnwood, Washington. Mr. Nowlin has attended LaJolla, California's National University and Malibu's Pepperdine University to attain graduate credits in business management and economics. Mr. Nowlin also attained a Texas State Teaching Certification, in social studies, psychology, and generic special education from the University of Texas at Tyler. Formerly a paralegal with the Board of Veterans Appeals in DC, Norton is presently a program specialist with the VHA Department of Finance in DC, and is also a published essayist, Internet-published poet, widely-read op-ed columnist, and a free-lance fiction writer. Mr. Nowlin resides in Northern Virginia with his wife, the renown math tutor, Diane C. Nowlin, and with the beloved enduring memories of their two very intelligent cats, Sissy and Josephenie.

As of 4/30/2020, Norton retired from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs after a total 20 years of federal government service. He is now finishing his first book, which should be completed in August 2020, and is working part-time as a freelance legal, technical, and academic writer.

Norton Rusty Nowlin spent his three years at JTHS in relative obscurity, a cadet in the Civil Air Patrol and an athlete. In 1969, as a senior, Rusty was awarded the coveted Amelia Earhart Award Certificate by the Civil Air Patrol and also received the Bronze Good Citizenship Award Medal by the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, in a special ceremony publicized by television news. His award was published in the national Civil Air Patrol newspaper, "The CAP Times," and in the "Tyler Morning Telegraph."

As a CAP cadet, Rusty also received notoriety on Tyler television Channel 7, KLTV, three times during the years he was at John Tyler High School. The only high school distinctions that Rusty received, from 1967-70, were his placements in Honors English, as a junior, with teacher Mrs. Kirtpatrick, and a hearty recommendation for senior Honors English, that he had to forego in order to enroll in the advanced beta class, World Political Georgraphy, in which he made a high grade.

Rusty also involved himself in the 1970 school play, "You Can't Take it With You," with drama teacher Mr. Burkhalter. Rusty portrayed a Russian ballet instructor, Boris Kollenkov, in the play. The very humerous anecdote that was published in the "Lion's Tale," conerning the futures of the play cast, included a prediction that David Payne and Rusty Nowlin would later create an acting school together.