Norris Legue, President of Synthetic Surfaces, Passes at 85

June 16, 2022 /
Norris Legue, the founder and President of Synthetic Surfaces Inc., passed away on May 29th. He was 85. 

Norris was born in New Orleans, and moved early in his life to New Jersey. He loved visiting new places and seeing new things, both in the city and in the wilderness, locally and far away.  His personal philosophy was that life is to be enjoyed.  If you like your job, your efforts are rewarding instead of boring.  If your earnings from your hard work exceed necessary expenses, spend a lot of it on fun and other things that please you.  Norris lived by that rule, loved his job, and worked up to shortly before his final days.   

NorrisNorris graduated from Seton Hall University with a degree in Chemistry.  In about 1969, he developed the first one-part urethane adhesive used successfully to glue down a synthetic turf football field.  Norris spent years developing adhesives in the basement of his home, and testing samples by placing them through a window onto the rooftop and then leaving them there through all the seasons and weather conditions, to assure their durability. Over time he knew he was onto something, and became the Founder, President and Owner of Synthetic Surfaces Inc. 

Norris owned six patents.  His company’s new generations of NORDOT® Adhesives are used to install synthetic turf more than other adhesives in the world.  Hence, the reason that his peers fittingly dubbed him the “Guru of Glue®.”

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Norris married Dorothy “Dotty” Samuelson in 1959, and the two were life-long companions until Dotty’s death in 2014.  The NORDOT® brand name is a combination of Norris’s and Dotty’s names.