The wireless Norm

I suspect other journalists at sometime experience the kind of curious, recalibrated relationship with a source of the kind I had with Norm Sandler.
Check the archives and you quickly discover that Norm was a regular on the pages of RCR Wireless News, especially during the 1990s when the cellphone-cancer controversy raged. He had the interesting title of director of global strategic issues for Motorola Inc. He spent a lot of time and expended lots of energy the previous decade scrapping with reporters like me over brain-cancer lawsuits, wireless health studies and mobile-phone safety standards. Indeed, Norm was somewhat of a regular contributor to the paper back then. It was, to be sure, an adversarial relationship in which neither party felt particularly compelled to give ground. In fact, we-Norm, former Motorola communications chief Rusty Brashear and yours truly-eventually had it out with my editors and publisher at a pow-wow in Denver. Nothing much changed, though. The phone calls continued to be tense and contentious, but continued nonetheless out of reluctant necessity.
For whatever reason-maybe battle fatigue, perhaps even begrudging mutual respect (Norm was an award-winning White House correspondent for UPI), or just simply time-the relationship and rapport eventually took a turn.
While the wireless health issue tended to calm down as the 1990s wound down, it was still out there and remained fertile ground for fighting. Then came 9/11, and his, mine and everybody’s focus was diverted-but not necessarily in sentimental sense you might suspect. The issue of Iraqi reconstruction-specifically building nationwide mobile-phone and first-responder wireless infrastructure that didn’t exist under the iron rule of the bygone tyrant-became a subject of keen common interest. And so we talked. Eventually phone conversations took place on a fairly regular basis, and the relationship normalized as much as one can-especially given the history. It was not uncommon to joke around on the phone, believe it or not. Norm had a quick wit, a sense of sardonic humor and polished political acumen. We never became chums or anything, but communicating in our respective roles was no longer insufferable.
The past year had been a tough one for Norm, personally and professionally. He was 53, far too young to leave the scene.