Cleaveland, Norman

Cleaveland is a New Mexico author, an Olympic Gold medallist in rugby, and mining engineer. He is the son of New Mexico author Agnes Morley Cleaveland.

Norman Cleaveland was an American rugby union player who competed in the 1924 Summer Olympics. Cleaveland was born in California, but spent a considerable portion of his youth growing up on his family's ranch outside of Datil, New Mexico. He was a standout athlete for Stanford University when he became a member of the American rugby union team which won the gold medal in Paris at the very start of the 1924 Summer Olympics. After graduating from Stanford with a degree in mining engineering, Cleaveland began a long and respected career specializing in dredge operations.The son of noted western author Agnes Morley Cleaveland, after retiring from mining, Norman wrote and edited three books. His first, written with George Fitzpatrick, was titled The Morleys - young upstarts on the Southwest Frontier and chronicled Norman's maternal grandparents move to Northern New Mexico to participate in the management of the Maxwell Land Grant. Norman raised eyebrows with his assertion that his grandfather's death was not accidental but due to lingering animosity with a group known as the Santa Fe Ring over the land grab that occurred of the original land grant. Norman died at his home on June 8, 1997, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, at the age of 96.

Norman Cleaveland was born in 1901 to Agnes Morley and Newton Cleaveland. He graduated as an engineer from Stanford University. One of Cleaveland's early accomplishments was winning a Gold Medal in the 1924 Paris Olympics as a member of the American rugby team over the heavily favored French team. Cleaveland served in World War II as a service pilot for the Army Air Forces.

Cleaveland's first dredging job was near Nome, Alaska, in 1922. In 1930, he took a dredging job in the Far East working primarily in Malaya. From 1946 until his retirement in 1966, Cleaveland lived in Malaya where he was president of the New York based company, Pacific Tin Consolidated Corporation. He wrote the book Bang! Bang! In Ampang, about dredging tin during Communist insurrection in Malaya.

Taking up writing about his family history in later years, Cleaveland published the book The Morleys-Young Upstarts on the Southwest Frontier in 1971. He felt that his family was a victim of the Santa Fe Ring and produced many writings, both published and unpublished, on his theories and beliefs.

Cleaveland and his wife Ann had three daughters: Helen, Alice, and Sarah.

Norman Cleaveland died June 8, 1997 in Santa Fe, New Mexico.