The Live Broadcast will open 15 minutes prior to the start of the service at 2:00 PM
The Lord called Dan home at the age of 82, following a short battle with Alzheimer’s Disease on Dec. 3, 2021, at Serenity Point Living in Townsend, Mont.
Daniel Joseph Norvell was born on Aug. 12, 1939, in Quincy, to Dwight Norvell and Clara (Kunkel) Norvell, the eighth of 15 children.
Dan grew up on a few different farms, attended a rural grade school in Missouri Township, walking the distance to school with his siblings, since busing didn’t begin until 1951.
Dan contracted polio when he was 6 years old and was on an iron lung for a time. He made a full recovery, and went on to become an athlete in high school.
He was a fast runner, and held the record for 100 yard dash and high jump, also playing football as a halfback during his teens. Dad was an accomplished roller skater, and was a great dancer, attending all the sock hops that he could. He graduated from Brown County High School in 1957, and was homecoming king that year.
Following High School, he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. After his discharge in 1959, he moved to Kirkland, to work for his Uncle Tony, then drove truck for Valspar Paint Co. in Rockford.
Through fellow truck driver Red Littlejohn, he met Shirley Barchard and they married in 1961, and lived in nearby Loves Park. Daughter Taffy was born in 1962, followed by Brad in 1964, and they moved to Huntsville, where Dan ran a hog farm for a few years. Son Ted came along in 1965; Dan went to work for Standard Oil Corp. and managed a fertilizer plant outside Camden, for the next 10 years. After that, Dan did a number of jobs, including construction, and had a bad accident in 1981, which damaged his vertebrae and required surgery, ending his short career in construction.
Dan had always wanted to live in the Rocky Mountains; after a family trip to Glacier and Yellowstone in 1982, Dan and Shirley sold their Camden property and moved to Montana in 1983.
With daughter Taffy and son Ted in tow, they moved around to different locations in Montana, until they settled in Townsend. Dan later acquired a piece of property on Lower Deep Creek Road and built a sawmill there, where he sawed out many a board, made jack fence and trained horses.
Some of our most memorable family get-togethers happened there, with dad making a bonfire and all of us roasting hot dogs and marshmallows, fishing in the creek nearby, and riding horses. Dad was a gifted artist, and he drew, painted, carved and sculpted his entire life, with his most inspired works centering on wildlife.
Dad guided for outfitters including long time friends Ed and Wanda Watson, and really enjoyed hunting, except for the time his horse shied and he almost lost an ear to a dead branch! He built camp stoves for friend Orville Reilly, had a great sense of humor, and was recognizable to most in his snap shirts, suspenders, cowboy boots and old straw hat.
Dad was a bit of a dreamer, quick to offer a hand, generous with his time and talent. He worked hard, raised hunting dogs, stretched hides in the winter to earn money for Christmas gifts for the family, started his own fertilizer spreading service, ran the plant for Standard Oil, was a hog farmer, a laborer at a stockyard, a guide, so many things, but underneath it all was his art. He loved wildlife, and wildlife featured prominently in almost all of his creative endeavors.
He was a lifelong fisherman, plinked a little on his guitar, and liked listening to classic country music (though he couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket!)
Dad was happiest when he was outdoors, working or recreating. When his boys were young, he volunteered to help out with the Boy Scouts’ camping trips. He loved going berry-picking in the summer, and when it was morel mushroom season in the midwest, he always knew all the best spots!
Dad loved to read, especially Louis L’amour and Zane Grey; he always had a stack of westerns next to his easy chair. If he was watching TV, westerns of any kind were his favorite. And the stories! Dad had stories galore, about his large close-knit family, about hunting, handfishing, training horses, farming and ornery milk cows, and about asking Jesus into his heart at the age of 42.
His dream was to move out west, live in the mountains, and he loved Big Sky Country. Even in his last years, if he could look out at the view of Baldy, he was content. In 2017, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease, moving to assisted living in 2019 at Serenity Point east of Townsend. He was well-loved there; Dad was treated like family, and we couldn’t have asked for better caregivers than owners Heather and Brian LaCotta, also the staff of Compassis Hospice and the VA at Fort Harrison.
Dan was preceded in death by his parents, Dewey (Dwight) and Clara; brothers, Donald Dwight, and baby boy Norvell; sister, June; and brother, Elmer A. (Tony).
He is survived by his wife, Shirley of Helena; daughter, Taffy (Will) Wertz of Toston, Mont.; sons, Brad Norvell of Townsend Mont., and Ted (Carrie) Norvell of Greenville, Texas; grandsons, Seth and Caleb Wertz, and Nick and Dillon Norvell; granddaughters, Rachel Wertz and Molly Norvell; great-granddaughter, Gwen Wertz; sisters, Helen (Marie) Billingsley of Camden, Margie (Marge) Ackers of Columbus, Ohio, Clara Belle Billingsley of Industry, Patricia A. “Patsie” (Ed) Hopkins of Sherman, and Cheryl (Gary) of Petersburg; brothers, James A. “Jim” (Diane) Norvell of Springfield, Dwayne “Dewey” (Maggie) Norvell of Kirkland, David “Dave” (Kathy) Norvell of Cook Station, Mo., Gerald C. “Jerry” (Sue) Norvell of Abingdon, and Raymond Charles “Chuck” Norvell of Albany, Ga.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that any memorials be sent to The Alzheimer’s Association. A tribute page has been set up online at : http://act.alz.org/goto/Dan_Norvell
Donations can be sent to: Alzheimer’s Association, 225 N. Michigan Ave FL 17, Chicago IL 60601. Phone: 1-800-272-3900.
A Celebration of Dan’s life will be held on Saturday, July 9, 2022 at 2:00 pm at Stevenson Wilke Funeral Home in Townsend.
Service Schedule
Celebration of His Life
2:00 PM
Saturday July 9, 2022
Stevenson Wilke Funeral Home
212 Broadway
Townsend, MT
Service Schedule
Celebration of His Life
2:00 PM
Saturday July 9, 2022
Stevenson Wilke Funeral Home
212 Broadway
Townsend, MT
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Kelly Ingalls says
I admired Dan for all that he did in his life. He was a very kind and patient man. He helped me build a steer shed for my daughter Ellie for 4-H. I will miss him deeply.