Norman family selected as 2023 Northwest Family of the Year

The Norman family of Lee’s Summit, Missouri, is Northwest Missouri State University’s 2023 Family of the Year, a recognition bestowed each fall during the University’s Family Weekend festivities on a family who best represents the “Bearcat family” and demonstrates a strong commitment to the University.

The Norman family’s affiliation with the University began with Dr. Gary and Ramona Collins, who moved to Maryville in 1965 to begin their employment with Northwest, which touched five decades. Ramona, who grew up on a farm outside of Maryville, also graduated from Horace Mann High School on the Northwest campus in 1959.

The recognition comes with a $750 scholarship and other prizes, including an introduction during halftime of the Family Weekend football game.

“Northwest, Maryville – it’s a huge part of our family history, especially for our grandparents,” Shelby Norman, a senior geology major with an environmental emphasis, said. “This school, this town is a big part of our family history, and I’m super excited that we can honor them and their contributions to Northwest.”

Gary started the first part of his 28-year career at Northwest as an instructor of physical education and head coach of the Bearcat wrestling program. In 1970, he left the University to pursue his Ph.D. at the University of Utah, and – after teaching and coaching stints at Ottawa University in Kansas and at Graceland University in Lamoni, Iowa – he returned to Northwest in 1978, resuming his roles as a physical education instructor and wrestling coach. As a Bearcat wrestling coach until 1985, he guided two wrestlers to individual national championships.

As the physical education program evolved into the Department of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, Gary advanced to the rank of associate professor and served as department chair during the 2000-01 academic year before retiring from the University.

Ramona, meanwhile, joined the Northwest faculty in 1965 as an instructor in the physical education department but stepped away from the classroom the next spring to begin raising the couple’s children – Geri, Janne and Brad.

Ramona rejoined Northwest in 1984 as executive secretary for the vice president for finance and then was the assistant director of human resources from 1987 to 2002.

All three of the Collins children completed at least one degree at Northwest. Geri completed her Bachelor of Science in Education at the University in 1988; Janne earned an education specialist degree in secondary administration and superintendency at the institution in 1996; and Brad received both a Bachelor of Science in Education in 1992 and a Master of Science in Education in 1996 from Northwest.

Additionally, Brad’s wife, Julie Callahan Collins, and Janne’s husband, Kevin Grover, earned degrees at Northwest. Julie, a Bearcat tennis player from 1988 to 1993 and M-Club Hall of Fame inductee as an individual and as a member of the 1992 team, completed a bachelor’s degree in psychology and business management in 1993 and a Master of Science in Education in 1996 at Northwest. Kevin earned a Master of Science in Education in 1991 and an education specialist degree in 2002.

Geri’s husband, Kevin Norman, did not earn a degree from Northwest but maintains a high level of Bearcat pride as a member of the Bearcat Booster Club Member and a football season ticket holder.

Extending the family’s tradition to a new generation of Bearcats, three of Gary and Ramona’s eight grandchildren now attend Northwest.

Rylee Norman graduated from Northwest in 2022 with a Bachelor of Science in Education and is pursuing a Master of Science in Education. She played the oboe in Northwest’s Wind Symphony and Symphonic Band, and she was a captain of the Bearcat Marching Band’s color guard and the winter guard. She also was active in the Kappa Kappa Psi national honorary band fraternity.

This fall, Rylee entered her second year as a teacher in the Blue Springs School District, where she teaches fourth grade.

Shelby Norman participates in multiple music ensembles, including as a section leader with the Bearcat Marching Band and as a French horn player with the Wind Symphony and Symphonic Band, in addition to roles as parliamentarian and treasurer of Kappa Kappa Psi.

Shelby also is active in the geology program, serving as a teaching assistant, an Earth science tutor at the Student Success Center, a member of the Geoclub and president of Sigma Gamma Epsilon national honorary Earth science society. Additionally, she is a member of Pre-Law Society.

Dillion Grover, one of three children of Janne and Kevin Grover, is a senior exercise science major and member of the Bearcat track and cross country teams. He transferred to Northwest last spring and hopes to become an athletic trainer after completing his degree.

“It is so exciting to have our family to be recognized for all of the great things that have happened to us through Northwest, through all the relationships we have made and through the activities we have been able to do at Northwest,” Rylee said. “We just love Northwest. It’s a great school.”

The Family of the Year is selected from submitted applications and announced during Family Weekend activities at the University. Student recipients shall maintain a 3.00 GPA, be involved in at least one student organization at Northwest and a second organization in the community, and demonstrate a family legacy through generations of involvement with Northwest.

For more information about the Family of the Year award and to nominate a family for future consideration, click here.