John O. Norquist was born in Princeton, New Jersey on October 22, 1949 to Reverend
Ernest and Jeanne Norquist; he was the second of six children. After his father
graduated from seminary in 1949, the family moved around the Midwest for some years.
Eventually in 1967, they moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin when his father took a
position as a pastor at Bethany Presbyterian Church on West Mineral Street. Reverend
Norquist served as a pastor there until he passed away in 2004.
The 6'7" tall Norquist attended University of Wisconsin–Madison from 1969-1971 and
graduated with a B.A. in Political Science. He then served in the Army Reserves’
452nd Medical 84th Division from 1971-1977 as a Medic Specialist 5th Class and
worked at Milwaukee Electric Tool, from 1971-1974 as a Lathe Operator. In 1974, he
was elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly and served as the State Representative
for Milwaukee’s 8th assembly district from 1975-1983. He was then elected to the
Wisconsin State Senate representing Milwaukee’s 3rd senate district from 1983-1988.
He was member of the Joint Finance Committee as a State Representative and then as a
State Senator. In 1983, he returned to the University of Wisconsin-Madison and
earned a Master’s in Public Administration in 1987. In 1986 he married Susan Mudd,
an environmental law and policy attorney. She also received her undergraduate (1979)
and graduate (1983) degrees from University of Wisconsin-Madison. They have two
children. The oldest, Ben, often made appearances with his parents at City
events.
In 1988 Norquist was elected Mayor of Milwaukee. During his tenure he chaired the
National League of Cities taskforce on Federal Policy and Family Poverty and served
on the Amtrak Reform Council. In 1998 he published The Wealth
of Cities: Revitalizing the Centers of American Life. Over the years he
taught courses in urban policy and urban planning at the University of Chicago,
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s School of Architecture and Urban Planning, and
Marquette University.
Norquist was a vocal supporter of charter schools and school choice/voucher programs
which allowed parents more school options to send their children. In 1991 Indian
gaming was legalized in Wisconsin and that same year the Forest County Potawatomi
Tribe opened Potawatomi Bingo (now Potawatomi Hotel & Casino). It was the first
casino in the U.S. that existed off tribal reservation land. Potawatomi continually
added more gaming options over the years and in 2000 had their first large
expansion.
In July 1991, serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was arrested in his apartment on 25th
Street between State St. and Kilbourn Ave. In May 1991, Dahmer and one of his
victims encountered Milwaukee police officers but the situation was dismissed by
them as a domestic dispute. They allowed Dahmer take his victim back to his
apartment, where he eventually killed him. Dahmer then went on to kill 4 more people
until he was caught in July. The two officers from the May encounter were fired but
in 1994 were reinstated after appealing their termination.
Between 1996 and 2001 a new baseball stadium with a retractable roof was built for
the Milwaukee Brewers and the old County Stadium was demolished. The Park East
Freeway was torn down in 2002. In 1988 the first Pride celebration in Milwaukee
occurred, in 1989 the first Pride Parade, and in 1996 Pride Fest moved to the Henry
Maier Festival Park. In the spring of 1993 Milwaukee had a water crisis/emergency
when residents began getting sick and cryptosporidium was discovered in the drinking
water supply.
In the 1990s there were three lawsuits that involved some questionable decisions made
by City leaders, including Norquist, regarding the City of Milwaukee employees’
pension fund. One of those came in 1995 from a decision to combine the disability
and pension funds. The disability fund was having solvency issues and city leaders
wanted to use the financially sound pension fund to help correct that. A judge ruled
against the City’s decision and eventually a settlement was reached for all three
lawsuits with City employees.
In early 2000, Norquist was accused was sexual harassment, racial discrimination and
wrongful termination by former staff assistant Marilyn Figueroa. After months of
public speculation and negotiations with Figueroa’s attorneys in December 2000,
Norquist publicly admitted to and apologized for a 5-year consensual affair with her
that ended in 1999. He accused Figueroa and her attorneys of threats and extortion.
The case was eventually settled between the City of Milwaukee and Figueroa. Norquist
announced he would not run for a 5th term and paid the settlement amount from his
campaign funds and personal accounts.
In June 2003, Norquist announced he would be resigning at the end of the year, a few
months shy of his official term end in April 2004. He had accepted a position as
President/CEO of the Congress of New Urbanism (CNU). On January 2, 2004, Common
Council President Marvin Pratt was sworn in as acting mayor in a ceremony with
Norquist in attendance. Pratt was the City of Milwaukee's first African American
mayor. Norquist retired from CNU in 2014 and continues to live in the Chicago
area.
