Norman Michael Fine passed away peacefully at home at the age of 90 on August 16, 2025, survived by his wife of 58 years, the former Joan Kusta Latimer, with whom he shared many adventures, including skiing at Stowe, Vermont, most winter weekends; cruising the northeast coastal islands on their wooden Concordia yawl through the summers from Long Island to Maine, showing horses, and following hounds in the U.S., Canada, Ireland, and England.
Norm graduated from Dartmouth College, Class of 1955, and Dartmouth’s Thayer School of Engineering, Class of 1956.
A 3-years stint at Raytheon paved the way for Norm’s first entrepreneurial venture. Raytheon was under contract with the FAA to design and deliver an improved air traffic control system for installation at major airports around the country. Norm was attached to a design team tasked with developing a state-of-the-art large-screen radar display for air traffic controllers.
Armed with knowledge gained through that experience, he and a colleague, both in their 20s, formed Beta Instrument Corporation in 1962. It was the era of the Cold War, and the new company was soon designing and building high-resolution radar screens and infrared scopes for Naval and Air Force aerial reconnaissance missions.
Norm took pride in his company’s role in several historic firsts. For NASA’s Apollo-11 mission, Beta designed and built display scopes to receive the slowly transmitted signals from space and assembled and displayed the imagery for television cameras. Those black-and-white ghostly images of Neil Armstrong descending the stairs from the landing module and planting his famous footprints on the surface of the moon were broadcast live worldwide. Playing on Neil Armstrong’s famous comments about “a small step for man,” Norm called it “a small part for Beta, but pretty damn visible!”
For a researcher at NYU, the company designed and built the electronic display scope that constructed the first ultrasound images-non-destructively-of the interior of a human eye.
For MGM, the company designed and built precision displays for the studio’s first color-correction equipment that allowed cameras to film scenes without having to wait for the weather they wanted. The first film to use the new technology was Dr. Zhivago. Of the film’s 1966 Oscars, one was for Best Cinematography.
For the information services industry, the company designed and marketed the first programmable computer-onto-microfilm systems.
Norm and Joan moved from Concord, Massachusetts to Clarke County, Virginia, permanently in 1988. Here, separated from his former world of technology, equine activities opened a new door for creativity: writing as an avocation. He established the country’s first foxhunting magazine, Covertside, and was editor of this prize-winning publication for 15 years. He created and edited Foxhunting Life, a website for foxhunters. He wrote several books and thousands of articles published here and in England. He rode with numerous packs across the U.S., Canada, England, and Ireland, interviewing and riding alongside many of the leading huntsmen and legends of the sport. Through these experts, he exposed his readers to the finer points of the literature, music, history, and practice of this ancient sport.
While his scribbling was mostly for pleasure, upon reaching his mid-80s, Norm hung up his riding tack and sat down to write the serious book he’d been planning for 25 years. He reviewed notes and interviews he’d long been collecting and wrote the award-winning Blind Bombing: How Microwave Radar Brought the Allies to D-Day and Victory in World War II. This little-known story about the warriors, statesmen, and scientists who brought to combat the single invention most influential in winning the war was published by Potomac Books, an imprint of the University of Nebraska Press. Blind Bombing won the Silver Medal for World History in the 2020 IPPY awards, a national competition sponsored by the association of independent and university presses.
In addition to his wife Joan, Norm leaves the daughters of his first marriage, Lisa Fine and Robin Fine; two grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to either Blue Ridge Hospice, 333 West Cork Street, Winchester, Virginia 22601 or Blue Ridge Hunt, PO Box 96, Boyce, Virginia 22620. Online condolences may be left at jonesfuneralhomes.com.
