Norman E. McQuarrie

Norman E. McQuarrie

2/22/1942 – 9/15/2022

We have lost Norm. A special person to many of us. He passed on September 15th after a long courageous battle with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease).

He was preceded in death by his sister Janice Pinkston and brother Marvin McQuarrie, both of Oroville, CA. He is survived by his wife Heather McQuarrie and his children, Lorne McQuarrie, Nicole McQuarrie and Jennifer McQuarrie.   Norm loved that his three children all chose Quincy as their home. His stepson, Hans Keeler lives in Sacramento. Grand children are Jessica Melms, Tyler Melms and Simon McQuarrie.

Norm worked hard and he played hard. He approached both like when he was on the racetrack, never planning on coming in 2nd.

Almost a native, Norm moved from Oroville to Quincy when he was 10 days old. At around 5 years old, his dad had work at the other end of the canyon and moved his family to Concow/Yankee Hill area.

He attended elementary school in a one-room schoolhouse at Concow where he made and kept lifelong friends and apparently paid attention in class. Later in High School in Oroville he was concerned that he would fail a U.S. history final. That class was right after lunch, and he admitted that he often fell asleep and hadn’t studied. To his surprise, he got the highest grade in the class. No falling asleep in that one-room schoolhouse.

He moved back to Plumas County in 1960 and worked in different aspects of the timber industry. He started working for Moak Logging at 18, worked for Clover Logging and was a partner in McElroy Logging. An excellent mechanic, people would track him down for advice on how to fix things. He said if someone else could build it, he could take it apart and put it back together better. True story.

Inspired by his high school geography teacher with a love of his country Norm accomplished his goal of traveling to all 50 states. Avoiding freeways and hitting back roads he also visited over 50 National parks and monuments and seven Canadian provinces. A few of his favorite places were Washington DC, the Statue of Liberty, Mount Rushmore, Carlsbad Caverns, The Grand Old Opry, Graceland, The Alamo, Denali, the Arizona Memorial, Niagra Falls, all the Great Lakes and Bay of Fundy on the way to Nova Scotia where his father migrated from.

Late in life he got the gold fever and had a passion for prospecting for gold and detecting for coins and treasures. It got him out of his mountains and forest that he loved and to new adventures and friends in deserts of the southwest.

He loved his weekly bridge games, and with the assistance of his son, Lorne, was able to play until the week before he died.

Norm passed peacefully surrounded by family and love and knowing he was on the way to meet his Maker.

Celebration of Life will be on October 22nd, from 2p.m. to 5p.m., at the Morrison’s barn, 1843 Quincy Junction Road.

Donations would be appreciated to the ALS Association or Paralyzed Veterans of America.