Friends, family remember former St. John's captain Sam Norton after Leominster native passed while running marathon

In this time of healing, Sam Norton's family and friends have come together in such an extraordinary fashion.

It's not just St. John's High Class of 2015 chums and staff checking in with Sam's mom, Kristen Caisse, and running buddies from New York doing the same.

They've all been comforting each other directly, the St. John's friends and Manhattan harriers sharing precious memories of their dear friend Sam, who died at 26 after collapsing while running the Santa Rosa Marathon in California just two Sundays ago. He was aiming for a qualifying time for the 2024 Boston Marathon.

Caisse was told by a doctor that her son's death could have been connected to rhabdomyolysis, a rare disorder with which Norton, who grew up in Leominster, was diagnosed after he collapsed running the Boston Marathon in April.

"Everyone is supporting one another and being so available," said Meghan Summers, Norton's girlfriend. "It's not surprising that all of his networks have been so supportive and coming together because Sam was that way with everyone. He always knew how to make you feel OK."

Norton met Summers in June 2022, just before she took a position in San Francisco and she has been in the process of moving back east.

Obituary: Samuel C. Norton

"He was such a positive, forward-looking teammate for all," John Andreoli, who this year retired at St. John's football coach, said of his former captain. "He did everything with maximum intensity, in all he did."

And that included in all his friendships, in his work in New York's finance industry and his running, which he started to become serious about over the past couple of years. Norton started his career at Goldman Sachs and later moved to Gamut Capital Management.

"He came out every week and ripped," said Joe DiNoto, founder of the Orchard Street Runners in lower Manhattan. "The instantaneous connection we had was rooted in how he was so respected. He was so competitive, yet he'd be so supportive to others, saying, 'I want YOU to do better.' "

Included among the Orchard Street events were a variety of offbeat runs, one being a race with a start and a finish but no set route, and the runner has to plot his or her own way to the finish. Another is a bread-route race, following trails of delivery trucks during the wee hours of the morning.

"Runs like that brought Sam in," DiNoto added. "And I didn't realize that he had helped start his own club. It breaks my heart to not be able to thank him."

"From the first run, he welcomed you into his life," said Victor Zeitoune, who served as Norton's running coach and partner with the Almost Friday Running Club, of which participants gathered for Thursday runs. "He was just so creative and welcoming to people, so community-oriented.

"But if you saw him at a race setting, you'd never know it's the same person," added Zeitoune, who accompanied Norton to Santa Rosa and ran in the race. "The fire would come out, ready to crush it."

On Aug. 6 at the Brooklyn Mile, he finished 84th out of 636 in 4:54, far better than any of his Almost Friday Running Club amigos could have expected and he did that the day after a 22-mile run and his highest mileage week to date.

"He did absolutely everything he could to put himself in the best possible position to achieve the outcome he wanted," Summers said. "There was never any excuse. He was the hardest worker, the biggest lover and best friend to those around him because that was who he was and wanted to be."

One could say much of that competitive spirit came from Norton's mom, who for 11 years was the 800-meter record-holder at Leominster High and competed in running events for 35 years, many of which Sam and sisters Lucy and Maggie attended as youngsters.

"I just loved the way he'd call me and be so excited," said Caisse, who welcomed call after call from Sam's running club friends last week. "I so understood the feeling of self-accomplishment and that commitment."

Caisse, who said she had 2-week-old Sam in a running stroller as she trained, has fond memories of a half marathon Sam ran in Brooklyn. "It was so fun to be on the other side of it and I was so pumped."

"He'd be out there cruising, cruising to a 6½-minute mile, seemingly without a sweat," said Jack Hanna, a St. John's classmate, teammate and was with Norton at UMass before Norton transferred to Boston College. Norton earned a finance degree at BC, where he played for the school's rugby club.

"Everyone sees him as a leader, making all feel welcome," added Hanna, who is in his third year at UMass Chan Medical School. "He'd say dream big, dream impossible and then he'd do it and he did it with ease.

"In the 12 years I knew him, talking to him day to day, he gave you the impression you could conquer the world."

Sam Rogers, who played lacrosse at St. John's before matriculating to the University of New Hampshire, noted that Norton was always into fitness, at one time trimming off 60 pounds. Norton played lacrosse as a freshman before opting to help the program in other ways.

"He stayed as part of the team, as a manager, doing stats, video," said Rogers, a news reporter at WCSH-TV in Portland, Maine, who covered the Gray-New Gloucester/Raymond team in last month's Little League World Series in Williamsport. "He could've been doing a million other things in the spring.

"And he was just everyone's biggest fan," Rogers added. "He was the first one to text you and encourage you. He made you feel as you were the superstar. You wanted to hear his words of encouragement."

Joe Murphy, who played basketball at St. John's, was a year behind Norton, but the friendship warmly crossed class lines.

"He always looked out for me and reached out to me when I had some tough times," Murphy said. "You could see how passionate he was in his studies and football at St. John's and he was just as passionate in the fans' section at basketball games, right in the front row."

"Sam was your ideal St. John's student in a lot of ways," said Michael Foley, currently an assistant principal at St. John's who was an assistant football coach and history teacher when Norton played.

Foley recalled a campus ministry trip to Haiti, in conjunction with Be Like Brit, when Norton was all in.

"He was so hardworking, yet he was so great with the children," Foley said. "He'd work so hard on the house we were building, but he was also to the kids. The kids were drawn to him and that encapsulates who he was."

At April's Boston Marathon, Norton raised more than $16,000 running for the Herren Project, the nonprofit founded by former Boston Celtic Chris Herren that provided free resources for treatment, recovery and prevention of substance abuse disorder. Norton's father, Tim, who also was an avid runner, was an addict who died in 2020, providing Sam with further inspiration to make a difference.

Calling hours for Sam Norton are from 4 to 7 p.m. Tuesday at Richardson Funeral Home, 100 West St., Leominster. The funeral Mass will be at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday at St. Leo's Church, 128 Main St., Leominster.

"Of all the things Sam accomplished, it's been the friend he was to people that stands out the most," his mom said. "His sisters and I were very privileged to have that honor."

Contact John Conceison at john.conceison@telegram.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @ConceisonJohn.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Former St. John's captain remembered after Leominster native passed running marathon