Before Dick and Sylvia began dating, Norton wrote in an October
5, 1950 letter to Smith College student Jane Anderson that in addition to a
full course load at Yale he had enrolled in a course in Thomas shorthand at a local
commercial high school. He included in the letter a sample sentence he had
learned to write at the first lesson.
Charles A. Thomas
(1900-1982), introduced the Thomas shorthand method in 1935. Kentucky-born
Thomas was a gifted chemist and MIT graduate later hired to isolate polonium
for the Manhattan Project. In 1960 he became president of the Monsanto Company,
contributing to the development of new products, and was accomplished and
admired as both a chemist and businessman.
Thomas textbooks were published and reprinted by
Prentice-Hall throughout the 1940s, indicating some degree of market traction,
but not after 1949. At Sylvia’s request, or so he wrote, Dick Norton included a
one-line sample of Thomas shorthand in a March 1, 1951 letter, on Yale
stationery, to “Aunt Aurelia,” and transcribed it for her as “Best wishes from
New Haven.”
Thomas Shorthand was a simplified form of Gregg shorthand
and its foundational principle--symbols stand in for letters of the alphabet--inspired Teeline, a shorthand system
introduced in 1968 and used in England by print journalists, who still take
Teeline exams for certification. Norton’s Oct. 5, 1950 letter is in the
Jane Anderson Papers, Box 1, Folder 10, at the Mortimer Rare Book Room, Smith College
Libraries. Thanks to Karen Kukil for locating it and providing a
copy.