Norman Michael Fine
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November-December 2025
Norman Michael Fine died on August 17, a month short of his 91st birthday. Born and raised in Boston, Norm attended Boston English High School and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. At Dartmouth he earned an A.B. and an M.S. in electrical engineering from Thayer School. In his first job with Raytheon Manufacturing Co. (now RTX), he helped develop a large-screen radar display for air traffic controllers. After three years at Raytheon Norm and a colleague formed Beta Instrument Corp. in 1962, designing and building high-resolution radar screens and infrared scopes for the U.S. military, NASA, and others. Beta was later sold to 3M, and Norm established an engineering sales company. As a diversion from business, Norm discovered foxhunting. In 1967 he married Joan Latimer, and the couple spent vacations on horseback, skiing in Vermont, cruising from Long Island to Maine, and following hounds in the United States and abroad. In 1988 they moved to Clarke County, Virginia, where he established the country’s first foxhunting magazine, Covertside, created the website Foxhunting Life, and wrote several books and thousands of articles on the subject. In his mid-80s Norm wrote Blind Bombing: How Microwave Radar Brought the Allies to D-Day and Victory in World War II, which won the 2020 Independent Book Publishers Silver Medal for World History. Norm leaves his wife, Joan, two daughters, one grandson, one granddaughter, and two great-grandchildren.