For Norbert, it was in the blood

From the Pottsville Republican

It seems that N. Ray Norbert had being a brewmaster in his blood.

Although in his youth he considered becoming a dentist, he used to spend time after school watching the beer-making process at the former Columbia Brewing Co. in Shenandoah, where his father, Zigmunt A., was brewmaster.

After graduating from West Mahanoy Township High School at age 16, he accepted an apprenticeship from his father.

Along with work, he attended an area college, taking engineering, chemistry and biology classes.

After about a year, he went to the United States Brewers Academy in Manhattan, where he earned a brewmaster diploma and did post-graduate work in brewing, chemistry and bottleshop operation.

In the fall of 1942, he was hired at Yuengling, where he worked an assortment of jobs.

Several months later, in 1943, he followed in his father's footsteps in another way: he enlisted in the army, serving with the Eighth Army Air Corps during World War II.

While in the service, he attended Presbyterian College, Clinton, S.C., where he took courses in engineering, physics, chemistry, anatomy and the military.

He returned as a brewery worker, but was promoted to assistant brewmaster for nearly two years before he was offered the position of brewmaster after Joseph Bausback, died suddenly of a heart attack in the late 1940s. But he followed his father's advice and waited to gain more experience; he was only 26 at the time.

He continued as an assistant until 1960, when brewmaster William Sherk left for a job at another brewery. Norbert was offered the position, and he accepted.

Yuengling workers toast retiring brewmaster