Born on November 7, 1911, in Burnham Junction, he prepared for college at Fryeburg Academy and became a member of Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity at Bowdoin, which he attended for two years before transferring to Tufts Dental School, from which he received his doctor of dental medicine degree in 1935.

He practiced for a year in Rockland before establishing a practice in Phillips, where he remained in active practice until 1989. He brought the first x-ray machine to Franklin County and was a member of the staff at Franklin Memorial Hospital in Farmington. He was a member of the Maine Dental Association, the American Dental Association, the Masons, and the First Congregational Church of Fryeburg.

In Phillips he was co-chair of the Republican Party Committee, was president of the Parent-Teacher Association, and served as a first lieutenant in the Maine State Guard. He was the first Head Start dentist in the United States.

Surviving are his wife, Myrtle Brown Thurlow, whom he married in 1935; a son, Norman C. Thurlow II of Hampden; three daughters, Susan S. Gagne of Bethlehem, CT, Margaret Richman of Metamora, IL, and Melissa Yerxa of Jonesboro; ten grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.