Norman John Harker was born on June 15, 1948, at the Idaho Falls hospital in Bonneville County, Idaho. He was the second child of Ivan Walker Harker and Gayl Lovell Harker. He grew up in Lewisville, Idaho; spent time in Little Valley, Oregon when his father worked survey jobs in that region; and came of age in Idaho Falls after his parents moved the family there. His parents divorced around 1960, and Norman was raised thereafter by his mother Gayl and, after her remarriage, by his stepfather Mike Richins.

Norman attended Idaho Falls High School, where his senior-year geometry class under Mr. Anderson sparked a lasting interest in mathematics. After high school he attended Ricks College in Rexburg, then enrolled at Idaho State University in Pocatello, where he earned a civil and general engineering degree after approximately five years of study. He supported himself during his university years by working in the campus print shop.

He married Marilyn Phillips on March 28, 1970, in Idaho Falls. They began married life in a trailer three miles south of the ISU campus in Pocatello, where their first daughter Lisa was born in October 1970. Shortly after his graduation — skipping the ceremony in favor of a trip to Seattle — Norman walked into the Oregon State Highway Department office in La Grande, Oregon, in July 1971 and was hired on the spot as a survey party member. It was the beginning of a professional career that would take him through private engineering firms, two municipal engineering departments, and eventually to Clark County, Washington.

The family moved from La Grande to Salem, Oregon in October 1972. During the Salem years Norman worked for the City of Salem, ran two engineering ventures (Herk Engineering and G&H Surveying), and worked briefly for the private firm Davis, Edwards and Carter and later for David Evans and Associates in Portland. He and Marilyn purchased a home at 1669 Georgia SE in Salem in 1975, and three of their five children were born in Salem — Paul (1973), Kevin (1976), and Keri Ann (1979).

The family relocated to Vancouver, Washington in August 1980, settling at 8711 NE 35th Avenue. Norman joined Clark County’s engineering department, where he worked as a utility engineer and later design engineer. In April 1984 he was called as bishop of the Vancouver First Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a calling he served with counselors Wayne Taft and Larry Shingleton. His youngest son Eric was born in Vancouver on December 31, 1984.

Norman is the primary subject of the Harker Family Archive’s oral history, recorded in eleven sessions between late 2024 and May 2026 by his son Kevin Harker.