Norrie started life at Glenalmond in Patchells in 1961, having spent his prep school years at Hurst Grange. His talents soon became evident in many areas. In sport he developed into an accomplished middle distance runner. But it was in music and drama that he excelled. He was an admired singer in the College choir, from treble through to baritone, and he performed with distinction as Venus in Orpheus in the Underworld, as Sir Joseph Porter in HMS Pinafore and in 1966, to great acclaim, as Ko-Ko in the Mikado.

On leaving school in 1967 he travelled widely, particularly in South East Asia, teaching English for some months in a school in Thailand, and managed to appear on Thai TV as one of the ugly sisters in a production of  Cinderella to celebrate King Bhumipol's bithday.

Thereafter he graduated with a BA in modern history at Durham University and in 1972 with an LLB at Edinburgh University. He was called to the Scots Bar in 1975, and practised as an advocate until 1991 when he was appointed Sheriff of Arbroath.

From then until his retirement in 2011 he served as a popular and well respected local sheriff -  fair, sympathetic and anxious to do justice to all who appeared before him. In 1996 he and two colleagues, one a psychiatrist, the other an educational social worker, founded the CAFE Project - (Community Alcohol Free Environment) - to address some of the problems facing local youths - a very successful enterprise which was, and continues to be, a model of its kind. After his retirement his achievements in the town were recognised by the naming of a street ( Sheriff Stein Place ) after him.

He spent a quiet and contented retirement in his beloved cottage in Fowlis Wester, Perthshire. 

He leaves his wife Linda, to whom he was happily married in 1979, and their son Richard (R. M. Stein, Patchells 1997-2002).