As a youngster, Red Cross volunteer Norm Bottenberg loved swimming. So, when Everett College, where he was a student, offered a course in aquatic lifesaving, Norm says signing up “seemed like a reasonable thing to do.”  That was in 1957.

Taking the lifesaving course began an odyssey for Norm that includes more than six decades with the American Red Cross, first as a salaried executive and more recently as a volunteer. Norm has responded to disasters, worked in shelters, and a whole lot more. For much of his Red Cross career, he oversaw first aid and water safety programs in the Red Cross King County chapter, based in Seattle. In this role, he trained others to instruct Red Cross water safety and first aid courses.

Norm's first lifeguarding job was in 1957, while still a college student. He put his new-found skills to use, signing up as a lifeguard for the Seattle Parks Department. By 1959, he was managing the beach at Seward Park. After several summers managing the beach, he was asked to direct the Seattle Parks' Camp Denny at O.O. Denny Park on the east shore of Lake Washington. There he not only taught water safety, but also led groups of Seattle youngsters (40 at a time) who were experiencing their first overnight camping.

His long tenure with the Red Cross began on February 2, 1965. By then he was a high school shop teacher by day and aquatics supervisor for Seattle Parks during the summer, testing applicants for lifesaving jobs. His work brought him in contact with Elmer “Swede” Holstrom, who was then director of the Red Cross water safety program in Seattle. 

“After 28 years on the job, Swede was nearing retirement,” Norm says. “In 1965 Swede approached me about applying for his job.”

Norm got the job, continuing what is an amazing record of longevity. “Over 64 years, only two people held the Red Cross water safety job,” Norm says.

During his 32 years in the role, Norm’s responsibilities expanded. His first title was Director of Safety Services, in charge of the first aid, small craft, and water safety programs. Next, he became director of Red Cross Health Services. He remembers putting Red Cross health services on one of the day's new-fangled computer systems in the early 1980s.

“It took a lot of trial and error to get the computerized record system up and running,” Norm says.

Of the many contributions Norm made during his Red Cross tenure, streamlining the testing required for lifesaving jobs at local beaches, pools, government agencies and private businesses was one of them.

Joyce Bottenberg, Norm’s wife, explains that when Norm joined the Red Cross, “testing was being done piecemeal, with each hiring entity having its own testing process.” The Red Cross was asked by each agency to be part of the testing team.

Joyce remembers that Norm quickly realized many of the lifeguard applicants were trying out for more than one job. That meant he was seeing applicants more than once, with each hiring entity using a slightly different set of testing standards.

Norm called together all the hiring entities and created a standardized lifeguard testing procedure. It involved taking the most stringent requirement from each entity’s testing procedure and creating a Northwest Lifeguard Test. That became the standardized regional lifeguard test that many still use today.

For 10 years, Norm was the director of the American Red Cross National Small Craft Training School held at the University of Washington Conibear Shellhouse that trained instructors in rowing, canoeing, outboard motor boating, and sailing from across the country. 

Norm finally left the Red Cross in 1997 to do business continuity planning for aerospace giant Boeing. That’s the function that helps the company set up back-up processes to be used to recover business functions in times of business disruptions. But now he continues serving with the Red Cross, this time as a volunteer, doing whatever jobs he’s asked to do.

His last outing on behalf of the Red Cross was as a responder, deployed to Hurricane Harvey, which flooded Houston and surrounding areas in 2017. A previous article written for the Red Cross described Norm driving a truckload of supplies through flooded lowlands to Texas towns cut off by the water. Read the full story here.

Locally, Norm volunteers with Red Cross mass care teams at shelters set up following large evacuations. His recent 12-hour shifts included supporting a Red Cross shelter in Bellevue where two large housing facilities were evacuated because of fires.

For more than 100 years, the Red Cross has been making water a safer place for everyone by developing the training that enables facilities to deliver lifeguard and lifeguard instructor training, Water Safety Instructor® training and swim lessons. Through these efforts, we have helped to reduce accidental drownings by 90% nationwide. But even with that improvement, an estimated 4,000 people fatally drown in the U.S. each year. This is why we launched the Aquatics Centennial Campaign in 2014, and nationally, through this campaign, the Red Cross has:

Delivered over 131,000 sets of swim lessons.

Developed 2,100 future lifeguards through junior lifeguarding.

Trained over 2,000 lifeguards and lifeguard managers.

Authorized more than 1,300 people with Water Safety Instructor certification.

Equipped 19,000 parents and caregivers with water safety knowledge and skills.