Norman R. Creamer
Died
April 1, 2014
EXCELSIOR TWP. KALKASKA – Norman Roy Creamer, 77, of Kalkaska
passed away unexpectedly on Tuesday, April 1 2014 at his home.
Norman was born on Feb.
15, 1937 in Muskegon, the son of Richard and Virginia (Howell) Creamer. He is survived by his wife of 54 years, Kay
"Katy" Ann (Cooper) Creamer.
Norm graduated from
Michigan State University in 1960 with a BSA where he attended on a full ride
athletic scholarship as a baseball pitcher. He was recruited by the White Sox
but chose to attend college, where he met his future wife Katy.
After graduating, Norm
became a highly successful Life Insurance General agent. At the time Norm became the youngest member
of the MDRT (Million Dollar Round Table). Norm founded Golden Rule Associates
with 12 agents in Grand Rapids while still in his twenties. He started a second agency in Suttons Bay also
called Golden Rule Associates in 1975.
Norm was noted for being a
key note motivational speaker at: National insurance conventions, Universities,
Boy Scouts of America, Unity Churches and other civic organizations (known as
Mister Excitement).
Norm left a very lucrative
business career to start an accredited children's school in 1971, SOLAR (School
of Light and Realization) north of Suttons Bay with his wife and parents. SOLAR also included an adult spiritual
education program that included summer camps for children and adult Freedom
Festivals. There was a year round self-sufficient community of 80 people which
supported themselves through the sale of crafts made at the community.
Norm was ordained as a
teacher of the Coptic Fellowship by his spiritual teachers, Hamid Bey and Kurt
Stanley which served as the spiritual foundation for his life’s mission and
work. The myth of Camelot and the
Arthurian Legend were an integral part of Norm's philosophy.
At age 14 Norm had a
spiritual experience while fishing for Bluegill which became a life
passion. This symbolized to Norm the
Knights search for the Holy Grail. This
led him on a cross country journey to recapture that perfect moment that lasted
his whole life.
In addition to his loving
wife of 54 years, Norman is survived by his children: Michael (Letha) Creamer,
Kimberly Creamer, Christopher (Mariana) Creamer, and Noah Creamer; brothers,
David Creamer (Diane), Tom Creamer, and Steve Creamer (Yvonne); a sister, Kathy
(John) Loveless; and 9 grandchildren: Jessica, Hannah, Oliver, Sierra, Agustin,
Ignacio, Camila Creamer, Akasha, Keeston Creamer-Sutherland, and his beloved
dog Molly the Magnificent Mutt.
A gathering of friends and
family celebrating Norman’s life will be held on Friday, April 11th from 4-6 PM
at the Martinson Funeral Home of Suttons Bay. Followed by a potluck gathering
at Bahle Park Warming Hut in the Village of Suttons Bay. Bring your voices and instruments to
celebrate his life.
What a wonderful legacy he has left behind living in his children and grandchildren. May they carry the torch now to light their way into the future and help to make this world a better place.
ReplyDeleteDad, you are very much missed! I hope you are on that big lake catching lots of big bluegills and smoking a stogie :). You have left behind a legacy that has positively changed so many lives and so many people are going to miss you, most of all you were a great Dad and showed me how to be a father to my daughter. To me personally, that was the greatest gift of all. I know we will meet again someday, until then, please keep smiling and know that you are thought of each and every moment of the day.
ReplyDeleteAlways looked up to Norm from the time we were little guys. Taught me how to throw the curve and the sidearm fastball! And a lot of life lessons. I, and all the Howells, will hold you in our hearts forever. Thanks for being a great cousin and a great man.
ReplyDeleteSkip Howell
I send blessings to the Creamer Family. Many years ago, when I was in my 20's, I used to attend lectures at SOLAR. It made a big impact on my life and I was always thankful for the teachings from Norman. He was a wonderful man !
ReplyDeleteI really miss my brother Norm. At his very core was a humane, reflective, inspiring, and noble-spirited man. He had a sense of mission like no one I knew. This mission now lives in all who knew Norm: to be a part of something good beyond our selves. I was not able to attend Norm's funeral, as I was in China. I found out on my way to the Detroit Airport the early morning of April 2. I wrote a letter to Norm as I flew across America. It is a bit scattered, but heartfelt. I am going to send it in the following messages because the letter is too long.
ReplyDeleteA letter I wrote to my brother Norm in a plane flying to China:
ReplyDeleteDear Norm:
I never dreamed that this morning I would wake to the news of your death. I know you have struggled these past few years, and I knew you were weary from the stress of your health and financial struggles. But I never thought you would die so soon. Somehow I think maybe I thought you would never die, because in so many ways I always looked to you as someone who held my small world together as grew up.
For so much of my life, you were always bigger than life itself to me. At so many pivotal points in my life, you were there, truly in my life, connected to me. So many scenes come rushing through my head and heart. The night you took me trick or Treating with your girlfriend, Katy, when I was 4. The day you brought your new baby Mike home, and how you reassured me that Mike would not mess with my toys. The day you gave me my first official job mowing your office lawn. The times you took me fishing on your family vacations, and one of those times when you kindly but firmly let me know I needed to untangle those poles I messed up. The time you introduced the topic of the birds and bees, and how natural you made that. All the wonderful "bull sessions" we had when I reached upper high school and college age- sessions that were inspiring and fun and thought-provoking and affirming that you found me interesting and intelligent and even a confidante to you.
(continued)....
(Letter continued):
ReplyDeleteDuring those early young adult years, you always made me feel valued. We seemed to just resonate when we discussed "spiritual things" about the new age, the Coptics, the meaning of this life, and even the possibility of a new messiah. I never tired of talking with you, because it was truly truly connecting to one another as brothers and as friends. Although your mind was so keen and your philosophy so engaging, you always made me know you were enjoying those conversations and my company as much as I enjoyed yours. You honored me with your kindness and genuine interest in me, and you helped me immeasurably to become a man. You urged dad to spend more time with me, but Dad never knew how to do that with us boys- but you did. In many ways you served the role of father figure for me and I will always treasure and value that. You once called me your best friend. You were the same for me, brother.
Steve, Thank you for sharing. I especially remember the moments listening you debate the meaning of life, the morality of Genetics, a subject you held dear to you through your college years, and all the heated spiritual debates you had while maintaining brotherly love and respect for one another. I respect you and my Dad for having so much passion about what your beliefs were and are. It was an education and I was influenced and educated by both of you. Yes, we will miss my Dad, your brother, and a beacon of light to so many he touched. RIP.
DeleteThanks Mike. I always remember how skilled Norm was a diffusing concerns I had when they brought you home (playing with my toys, stealing the attention, etc). He was reassuring & understanding. We did have great, life changing, bull sessions!!
Delete(letter continued):
ReplyDeleteThose early years with you as my brother and friend were heady times. As you began SOLAR, I was further amazed and inspired by you. You gave up the country club perks of an effortless ability to make money and manage a business to start a spiritual school. It doesn't matter that SOLAR did not last forever, or that it was sometimes a messy experiment, or even that it may not have lived up to others' expectations. In my mind, your founding SOLAR was a high water mark in your life stemming from your genuine longing to make the world a better place. It was an answer to that inner voice that once told you that you would someday "know a secret so great someday that no one will believe you". You heard the owl call your name, and tried your best to answer that call.
As the years progressed, SOLAR came to an end. I think the pressure of living up to what you thought was expected of a "spiritual teacher" was just too exhausting. As we all watched SOLAR implode, the faithful were deeply disappointed and the skeptics were embolden to keep believing this "hippy" venture was pie in the sky. And for many years we drifted apart. I know the shame and guilt you felt about SOLAR's ending was devastating for you. Although you dismissed it as a big mistake in your life, and you claimed the SOLARIANS just needed to move on, I know you carried an overwhelming sense of failure about it, and that you believed or at least feared that you failed in the greatest possible way. So you withdrew from everyone and everything "spiritual". Norm, I will always believe that at your core you did your best to light a candle, and I know you are forgiven by a loving creator for anything you did in that noble venture.
I love you Norm. I honor your highest motives for doing good. I honor that in your finest moments of inspiring others you tried to make the world better. I wish you hadn't assumed you had to be perfect to be spiritual, but I believe spirit is now cradling you in the forgiveness that perhaps you could never offer yourself.
I have nothing to forgive you for, my brother. I accept and love you unconditionally. I always knew your occasional anger and rejection of me was because your capacity for inner hurt and self-doubt was so great. I just love you, my dear brother, and thank you for caring for me in every way you knew how. I know you have now found that perfect bluegill lake, my sweet brother, and someday I will fish it with you...and we will have our greatest "bull session" ever.
Your brother,
Steve
one of a kind. Never saw my dad look down on anyone nor did he ever look up or feel awed by anyone. It was that belief that allowed a six foot 150 pound kid to be drafted as a baseball player and among other sports be a great hockey player. when other kids dads told their sons they could make the high school team Norm would say you can make the major leagues or win the US open and meant it. Not a dreamer but a doer. Touched many peoples lives for sure and had an unusual story to tell. He is in a better place now. see you on the other side or in the next life.
ReplyDeleteLooking back on Solar, some 50 years later, I must confess Norm changed our lives forever. He gave me my 'moral compass,' and taught me how to meditate; a practice I continue to this day. Those lectures on the NMC campus, and at the farm were a priceless awakening. That summer his guest lecturer Noel Street read our past lives - filling us all with wonder.
ReplyDeleteThis is years later, Dec. 2021. I was one of those Quixotic SOLARians. With my wife and child, I journeyed from Upstate New York to Suttons Bay, having heard Norman share the dream when he came to our town to speak. We didn't remain long at SOLAR, but for reasons that had to do with me, not with Norm or the other residents (all of whom we liked and respected). And having left that dream of intentional New Age community, my spiritual life was put on hold for a long while. I just needed to plow other fields and this I did, eventually to good effect, in large part, thanks to Norman's positive ethic which I had thoroughly internalized. A few decades later, my spiritual life rekindled and today it's more my guiding Light than ever. And I regard Norm as one of my life's seminal teachers; such a kind and bright soul. I regard him with love and gratitude. I came across this blog because I was thinking about him and wondering what became of him and SOLAR. Say what one will about Norm; from where I sat, he LIVED his ideals, and his ideals were the best. I owe him so much and will forever hold him in the Light. From the comments on this page, I can see that Norm had his challenges and that he suffered his own dark night of the soul. So be it, but we all, as spiritual beings having a physical experience, know it's not easy, even for highly evolved souls like Norman. No matter. His intentions were sterling. He fitted himself out for the highest level of servant leadership and, speaking for myself, he didn't disappoint. Perhaps I'm one of those he felt bad about because I didn't remain at SOLAR. What I'm communicating to that wonderful being who was Norm is that, in my case, not only did he not fail, he succeeded, and perhaps even beyond what his fertile mind and kind heart could have imagined. Thank you, Norman, and vaya con Dios, always. --Joseph Taylor
ReplyDelete