Story dated 3rd July 2000

Pinball game designer Jon Norris has quit Stern Pinball Inc.

In a dramatic gesture, Norris has rid himself of all pinball related material.
He said "I threw away all of my Pinball related items on Monday, including several Trophies and hundreds of Pinball related Photos, and 20 years of reference items. I also threw away all of my materials for a Pinball Book, including about 500 Slides."

It later transpired that these were scanned copies, not the originals.

Jon, as asthma suffer, was "forced" to leave when the engineering department was moved from a separate building into the newly refurbished main production building. The engineering department had a no-smoking policy, whereas the main building allowed smoking.

Jon said "This decision block was forced upon me by the companies "Smoke Friendly" policy. I have Asthma and can not even be in a smokey environment."

He left Stern on 23rd June prior to the move on the 26th. He had worked for Sega Pinball and then Stern Pinball for 3 years, but had been in the industry for 15 years.

He has vowed to sell the remaining pinball games and materials, mostly through the eBay auction site. Among the items to go are a 1932 Shuffleball game - the first flipper game - and his Corvette pin.

Although he has left the industry, Norris says he will maintain an interest in pinball. "I left Pinball as my career, but the hobby will remain, although I will own no games. Now I need to concentrate on my future, not my past."

In the meantime, Jon will be working on his photography. He has a website of his photographic work - Dreamlandscapes.