Norris Tibbetts was born in 1921 in Boston and grew up in Chicago. He received a B.A. in sociology from Harvard University, finishing at the time of the United States' entry into World War II. After four years in the infantry, he returned to the States to study at the Hudson Shore Labor School where he met Sol Stetin who offered him a job in TWUA. He served as education director for TWUA's Allentown (Pennsylvania) Joint Board for about a year and a half before transferring to the Pittsylvania County Joint Board in Danville, Virginia. Although his title at Danville was still education director, he served there in many capacities and was, therefore, heavily involved in the 1951 southern cotton strike, when the Union suffered a disastrous defeat, with Danville being the key spot in the strike. At the end of 1952 Tibbetts took a position with the University of Wisconsin School for Workers, where he has been ever since.
