Robert Clifford Norman, 99, of Keosauqua, IA passed away on Saturday, January 25, 2025, at the Prestige Care Center in Fairfield, IA. Funeral services will begin at 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday, February 4, 2025, at the Cranston Family Funeral Home in Keosauqua, IA with Pastor Mary Kathryn Hart officiating. Burial will be in the Pittsburg Cemetery immediately following. Friends may leave online condolences at www.cranstonfamilyfuneralhome.com.
Robert Clifford Norman was born on November 26, 1925, and spent his early childhood in Iowa before his family moved to Houston, Texas. He grew up in Houston and then studied Design at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.
While living and working in Houston in 1971, he met and married Dorothy Dahlberg, a renowned interior designer. They moved to Calvert, Texas where they bought and restored a turn-of-the-century Victorian home and estate. Dorothy opened an antique store, The Blue Goose, and Bob opened up an art gallery and restoration studio on Main Street. While living in Calvert, they would travel to Keosauqua frequently. After Bob inherited the Pittsburg General Store from his great-aunt, they bought her former home and started spending the hot months in Iowa and the rest of the year in Texas. Eventually, they sold their properties in Texas and moved to Keosauqua full-time. Bob continued his art restoration and art appraisal work there.
In his many years as an art conservator, he has restored paintings by Rembrandt, James Boren, Carl Frederik Vogt, Salvador Dali, and countless others. His reputation brought him work from the Rockefeller family, the Texas State Capitol Building, and many historical buildings in Iowa.
Bob is preceded in death by his parents Mary Wilson Norman and Fletcher C Norman, his wife Dorothy Dahlberg Norman, brothers Fletcher Norman and Richard Norman, and sister Winnie George.
