The father of five died Tuesday in Adams Township, Pa. Wahlstrom, a full colonel who served 30 years in the Air Force, and was a member of the Utah House of Representatives and Logan City Council from 1977 to 1987, will be buried Saturday in the Logan City Cemetery.

Logan Mayor Randy Watts remembers Wahlstrom as a family man and a well respected member of the community. He described his relationship with Wahlstrom as personal, not political.

Watts' wife grew up in Logan across the street from the Wahlstroms. He remembers Wahlstrom once giving him advice on the virtues of marriage.

"When you talked to him he was very positive," Watts said. " . . . He said the most important thing you're going to do is take care of that wife."

Norman Wahlstrom was the eighth of 11 children. He was born Jan. 22, 1918, to Nelphi and Annis Wahlstrom. During World War II he piloted a B24 on missions in the South Pacific theater and over Berlin. He also served in Korea.

After retiring from the military, Wahlstrom moved his family to Logan, where he graduated from Utah State University and was later employed there as director of veteran affairs.

Wahlstrom taught his four sons and daughter the importance of being honest and working hard. Norman O. Wahlstrom Jr. described his father as a demanding, "task oriented" man who loved the military, his country and the Constitution.

"He evoked respect from people," Wahlstrom Jr. said. "He was very warm and people warmed up to him."

However, the sudden and public deaths of his wife, Mary, and daughter Carolyn Beug, was a "life-altering event" for the then 83-year-old, his son said.

Mary and Carolyn had delivered Beug's twin daughters for their first year at Rhode Island School of Design, and were headed back to Los Angeles, when Flight 11 was hijacked.

"Dad was in a fog from that point on," Wahlstrom said. "Dad just pulled himself in and he wanted to get away . . .. He was as much a victim of that terror attack as my mom was."

Norman Wahlstrom was living at Sunrise Assisted Living in Adams Township, near his son Scott, when he died.

Funeral services will be Saturday at 1 p.m. at the Lundstrom Park LDS Ward, 1260 N. 1600 East, in Logan.

A headstone bearing his name, as well as those of his wife and daughter, will be placed at his gravesite.

jbergreen@sltrib.com