Ex-cowboy and judge riding off into sunset

From growing up a cowboy on a ranch in Kanab, to playing one in the movies, Utah Court of Appeals Judge Norman Jackson has always had an appetite for doing something different.

As one of the founding members of the Utah Court of Appeals, which was created in 1987 to aid the Utah Supreme Court with decisions, Jackson has spent the past 18 years helping to form Utah law. From custody and divorce cases to contract and land disputes, Jackson has written opinions that has helped shape what Utah's laws are today.

This week, at age 72, Jackson is hanging up his judge's robe for good, stepping down from the bench and retiring. For Jackson, his career as one of the first court of appeals justices has been a journey in exploring legal issues. His outlook was forged through an upbringing of faith, hard work and parents who wanted to see all of their children graduate from college.

Tucked in the corner of his office at the Matheson Courthouse sits his father's saddle and a pair of silver spurs that he used as a young man on the ranch.

Growing up along the "Arizona strip" near the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, as early as 10 years old Jackson was helping his family to maintain a network of some seven ranches, raising sheep and later cattle.

"My mother was a schoolteacher," Jackson said, but his father never received his high school diploma. When he wasn't doing his ranch chores, Jackson said he and his friends would go and watch film crews make westerns.

"Kanab was known as 'Little Hollywood' and the movies were in town during the summer making hundreds of motion pictures and TV series." He and his friends soon found themselves recruited as extras.

Jackson chuckled thinking back. Last week he said he was flipping through cable channels and happened upon "Fury at Furnace Creek," an old western movie. "I was one of the Indians," he said, grinning. He also played cowboy extras — it just seemed to fit.

He also excelled at school, exploring drama and sports. At then end of high school he was offered a basketball scholarship to Dixie College and an academic scholarship to the University of Utah. He chose the U. "I think I made the right choice coming up to the U."

In addition to serving a mission for his faith, Jackson walked away with bachelor's and master's degrees in economics from Brigham Young University, having transferred there, and later a law degree from the U.