Norman Levi Riker
March 20, 1940- January 11, 2021
A livestreamed service will be held on Saturday, January 16, 2021 at 11:00 a.m. on the Rausch Funeral Home Facebook page.
Norman Levi Riker, also known as Norm or Stormin’ Norman, age 80 of Dowell, MD, and formerly of Upstate New York, passed away on January 11, 2021 at Calvert Health Medical Center.
Born March 20, 1940 in Sayre, PA, he was the son of the late Levi Max Riker and Rhoda Jane Riker.
Norman served in the U.S. Navy from April 17, 1957 until his Honorable Discharge on March 17, 1961. He was a member of the Calvert Marine Museum Fossil Club, a member of the Solomons Volunteer Rescue Squad and Fire Department for fourteen years, and a member of the Optimist Club. Norman cultivated and sold Bearded Iris and enjoyed model ship building, coin and stamp collecting, jigsaw puzzling and fishing. In his younger days, he enjoyed playing the organ and accordion.
Norman is survived by his wife, Janice Lee Riker whom he married on September 23, 1961 at Middleham Chapel in Lusby, MD; his children, Tawny Marjenhoff (Wesley) of Jacksonville, FL and Deirdre Forrest of Mechanicsville, MD; two grandchildren; one great-grandchild; and siblings, George Butts of VT and Gloria Lown of Upstate NY.
Visitation
Services
- Life Celebration Service
Saturday, January 16, 2021
11:00 AM
Interment
- Private
Contributions
Solomons Volunteer Rescue Squad and Fire Department
13150 H.G. Trueman Road
Solomons, MD 20688
Link:
http://svrsfd.org/
Condolences
Sort Comments
14 Jan 2021
9:26pm
To Janice Lee and all members of Norm’s family, please accept my deepest sympathies.
Norm was a great man and will be missed by all.
Sincerely, Chandler
City
Milton
State
Wisconsin
15 Jan 2021
4:15pm
To Janice Lee and all the Riker family, it was an honor for me to have known Norm. He was such a gifted paleontologist and fossil preparator. We are truly thankful that he donated most of his scientifically important fossil collection to the Calvert Marine Museum. Norm was one of the founding members of our fossil club and both he and Janice are life members of the Museum. One of the amazing fossils that Norm found years ago in the Lee Creek Mine in North Carolina was a fossil sperm whale tooth that had been bitten by a megalodon. Norm was one of the authors on that paper that will be published soon…I am so sorry that he did not live to see it in print. I will miss visiting with Norm in his well-tooled shop…showing me his latest project.
Best,
Stephen Godfrey
Curator of Paleontology
Calvert Marine Museum
City
Solomons
State
Maryland
16 Jan 2021
8:56am
Aunt Janice, Tawny, and Dee,
Fond memories of Uncle Norm abound, too many to detail. But one in particular bears mentioning. On a cold Spring morning in April 1972, the Riker family received a collect call from my brother Michael. He was calling from a yet to be opened gas station somewhere outside of Dowell, Md. Mike, myself and George Thomas had slept over-night at a construction site on our hitch hiking way back from Miami. Uncle Norm had given us each a silver dollar when we had stopped by top see him and Aunt Janice on our way to Howard AFB in the Panama Canal Zone and told us not to spend it unless we ran out of money in Panama. Needless to say, I had spent it days before. So there we were, cold and destitute wondering how we would make the last leg of the journey to Binghamton, NY. I don’t remember what day of the week it was, but when he got the call, Norm dropped everything he was doing and drove us all the way back to NY. That one selfless act epitomized the way Uncle Norm conducted his life and I’m sure that all who read this will agree. RIP Uncle Norm. Sincere condolences to the Riker family.
City
Binghamton
State
NY
17 Jan 2021
7:39pm
Remember that so well. Norm was very kind to us crazy kids. Sorry to hear of his passing.
City
Chenango Forks
State
New York
16 Jan 2021
12:07pm
My deepest condolences to the Riker family on the loss of Norm. Norm and I were friends since 1974 when I came to Calvert County as the director of the Calvert Marine Museum. Norm befriended me and suggested an effort be made to salvage artifacts from the M.M. Davis Shipyard that was soon going to be bulldozed. We salvaged all the records and plans we could from the office. We collected artifacts lying around the yard such as a post drill, bags of tunnels, vices, tools, etc. In the sail loft, Norm insisted we check out every sail. At the bottom of the pile, we found an old hand made sail and brass fog horn lost who knowns how many years before. We even salvaged some of the sidings of one of the sheds, all of which formed a recreated boat building shed, part of the first exhibit of the Calvert Marine Museum in the then-new museum building, the old Solomons School.
When cannonballs were discovered in some dredge piles on Lyons Creek Norm showed up with a sifting screen and sliding cradle he had made in his shop the previous night to sift the spoils for artifacts. We discovered remains of one of the earliest small-craft ever recovered in North America.
Norm loved fossils and was part of every excavation team that recovered whale and porpoise skulls from Calvert Cliffs in the 1970s and 1980s. Norm was the first to systematically collect sharks’ teeth from Popes Creek providing valuable scientific information as to precise location. Norm was a founding member of the Calvert Marine Museum fossil club. Norm and I established a tradition of doing a fossil collection trip along the Patuxent River each Thanksgiving weekend before we put our collecting boat away for the winter.
Most of all Norm was always there when I needed him, whether helping get my car out of a ditch during a snowstorm or repairing my house from termite damage. We shared the same interests including the same birthday (month and day, not year).
Norm was special. I will always remember our friendship. Norm will be missed but never forgotten. Rest in peace!
City
Lusby
State
Maryland
21 Jan 2021
9:37am
Our thoughts and prayers are with the family so sorry for your loss Dale and Lauren Weems
City
Prince Frederick
State
MD
Sort Comments
To Janice Lee and all members of Norm’s family, please accept my deepest sympathies.
Norm was a great man and will be missed by all.
Sincerely, Chandler
To Janice Lee and all the Riker family, it was an honor for me to have known Norm. He was such a gifted paleontologist and fossil preparator. We are truly thankful that he donated most of his scientifically important fossil collection to the Calvert Marine Museum. Norm was one of the founding members of our fossil club and both he and Janice are life members of the Museum. One of the amazing fossils that Norm found years ago in the Lee Creek Mine in North Carolina was a fossil sperm whale tooth that had been bitten by a megalodon. Norm was one of the authors on that paper that will be published soon…I am so sorry that he did not live to see it in print. I will miss visiting with Norm in his well-tooled shop…showing me his latest project.
Best,
Stephen Godfrey
Curator of Paleontology
Calvert Marine Museum
Aunt Janice, Tawny, and Dee,
Fond memories of Uncle Norm abound, too many to detail. But one in particular bears mentioning. On a cold Spring morning in April 1972, the Riker family received a collect call from my brother Michael. He was calling from a yet to be opened gas station somewhere outside of Dowell, Md. Mike, myself and George Thomas had slept over-night at a construction site on our hitch hiking way back from Miami. Uncle Norm had given us each a silver dollar when we had stopped by top see him and Aunt Janice on our way to Howard AFB in the Panama Canal Zone and told us not to spend it unless we ran out of money in Panama. Needless to say, I had spent it days before. So there we were, cold and destitute wondering how we would make the last leg of the journey to Binghamton, NY. I don’t remember what day of the week it was, but when he got the call, Norm dropped everything he was doing and drove us all the way back to NY. That one selfless act epitomized the way Uncle Norm conducted his life and I’m sure that all who read this will agree. RIP Uncle Norm. Sincere condolences to the Riker family.
Remember that so well. Norm was very kind to us crazy kids. Sorry to hear of his passing.
My deepest condolences to the Riker family on the loss of Norm. Norm and I were friends since 1974 when I came to Calvert County as the director of the Calvert Marine Museum. Norm befriended me and suggested an effort be made to salvage artifacts from the M.M. Davis Shipyard that was soon going to be bulldozed. We salvaged all the records and plans we could from the office. We collected artifacts lying around the yard such as a post drill, bags of tunnels, vices, tools, etc. In the sail loft, Norm insisted we check out every sail. At the bottom of the pile, we found an old hand made sail and brass fog horn lost who knowns how many years before. We even salvaged some of the sidings of one of the sheds, all of which formed a recreated boat building shed, part of the first exhibit of the Calvert Marine Museum in the then-new museum building, the old Solomons School.
When cannonballs were discovered in some dredge piles on Lyons Creek Norm showed up with a sifting screen and sliding cradle he had made in his shop the previous night to sift the spoils for artifacts. We discovered remains of one of the earliest small-craft ever recovered in North America.
Norm loved fossils and was part of every excavation team that recovered whale and porpoise skulls from Calvert Cliffs in the 1970s and 1980s. Norm was the first to systematically collect sharks’ teeth from Popes Creek providing valuable scientific information as to precise location. Norm was a founding member of the Calvert Marine Museum fossil club. Norm and I established a tradition of doing a fossil collection trip along the Patuxent River each Thanksgiving weekend before we put our collecting boat away for the winter.
Most of all Norm was always there when I needed him, whether helping get my car out of a ditch during a snowstorm or repairing my house from termite damage. We shared the same interests including the same birthday (month and day, not year).
Norm was special. I will always remember our friendship. Norm will be missed but never forgotten. Rest in peace!
Our thoughts and prayers are with the family so sorry for your loss Dale and Lauren Weems