Richard Norman was born on the south side of Chicago in 1927 during the Depression. He entered the Army Air Corps in 1945 where he developed an interest in religion. After eighteen months of honorable service, he was discharged but continued to study religion (Moody Bible Institute in 1947; University of Chicago Theological Seminary in 1957; Roosevelt University Chicago, Illinois, in 1971; and Nazarene Bible College in Point Loma, California, 1994). He is retired and now lives at Greenbrier Reserve in Chesapeake, Virginia.