(1902 Denver, Colorado- 1973 Denver, Colorado)

Art teacher and painter, Norma Diddel joined the faculty of the Nebraska State Teachers College at Peru, Nebraska in 1929, and kept that affiliation until 1966. In 1949, the school name changed to Peru State Teachers College at Peru.The college had been founded in 1865 by members of the Methodist Episcopal Church by settlers from Peru, Illinois. It was chartered by the State Legislature and then deeded to the state in 1867. This transaction made it the first state supported college in Nebraska. Because of its picturesque setting among many trees, it had the motto of ‘campus of a thousand oaks.’

As part of the school's Centennial celebration in 1967, Norma Diddel was honored by her name placed permanently in the art exhibition court of The Fine Arts Center. Indicative of her commitment to the school was her donation in 1964 of 150 books from her personal collection to the College library. Another contribution by her was described in the Omaha World Herald, April 12, 1945: “Miss Norma Diddel has designed and helped paint the new highway sign to be located at the junction of Highways 76 and 65, six miles from town.” The image of a “Campus of a Thousand Oaks” was featured on the sign.

During her thirty-seven year career as a teacher, Norma served a term as president of the Nebraska State Art Teachers Association from 1934 to 1935, and in Peru, she helped organize statewide art workshops for teachers. In a newspaper reference to her in the classroom, it was reported that for teaching floral still life painting, she procured flowers from the college custodian, Moorey Cook, who was also a prize-winning grower of gladiolas. On campus in addition to teaching classes, she oversaw illustrations for the College magazine, Sifting Sands.

Norma Diddel was born and raised in Denver, Colorado to parents Clara and William Diddel. She and her older sister, Marguerite, a noted modernist painter, were  influenced by their father, a craftsman, who was listed in census records as a ‘woodturner’ and ‘woodworker.’ Norma earned an A.B. degree from the University of Denver; took additional study at the University of California in Los Angeles; and earned an M.A. Degree from Colorado State University at Greeley. She also did special art studies at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Remaining unmarried, she devoted her life to teaching and creating art. Her teaching career had begun in the Denver Public Schools and continued at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, before moving to Peru. 

Throughout her adult life, she did much traveling, with Mexico being a favored destination and one reflected in her figure and genre paintings. Although she made her living and received more posthumous attention for her teaching career, Norma was energetic with her fine-art creative talents of painting, etching, potting, printmaking and design. Indicative of the marketability of her painting was her selection in 1950 to submit work to the newly opened Joslyn Art Museum Rental Gallery, a first-time for such a gallery in the Midwest. Its purpose, according to Joslyn Director, Eugene Kingman, was to “encourage the use of contemporary art in homes and offices.”  (Omaha World-Herald, Nov. 5, 1950)

She maintained an active exhibition schedule, which included shows in galleries in Nebraska, Colorado, Massachusetts and Illinois. She regularly exhibited in Omaha at Joslyn Art Museum between 1931 and 1954 including with the Five States Exhibition group. Other venues were the Brownville Art Festival; Nebraska Wesleyan Gallery; University of Denver in 1931; and the Lincoln Art Gallery, 1935-54. Among memberships were the National Education Association, Nebraska Education Association, American Association of University Women, American Association of University Professors, Western Art Association and Lincoln Artist Guild.

She died at age 72 in Denver. Her obituary stated that her request was that memorials be donated to the Peru State College Achievement Foundation.   

Sources:
Ancestry.com. accessed 9/2014 (Diddel Family Papers)

askART.com (Golden Gallery biographies of Norma and Marguerite Diddel), accessed 1/2014

Bucklin, Clarissa, Nebraska Art and Artists, p. 32, Print
 
Falk, Peter Hastings, Editor, Who Was Who in American Art, Volume I, Print

Lincoln Evening Journal, Newspaper, 11/30, 1935; 5/5/1942; 7/15/1955; 6/7/1959; 5/30/1963; 5/30/1966; 6/3/1973;

Omaha World Herald, Newspaper, 4/12/1945; 11/5/1950

“Peru State Normal College,” Wikipedia, Sep. 2014

“Sixty Years: A History of the Nebraska Art Teachers’ Association,” Nebraska Art Teachers’ Association, Web, Sep. 2014

Researched, written, and copyrighted by Lonnie Pierson Dunbier,
Museum of Nebraska Art Project:
Their Place, Their Time: Women Artists in Nebraska, 1825-1945