Norman Racusin, 82; RCA Exec Helped to Develop 8-Track Tape

Norman Racusin, the former president of RCA Records who worked with Elvis Presley and other pop singers and was instrumental in developing the eight-track tape, died April 29 at his home in Carlsbad after suffering a stroke. He was 82.

Racusin was appointed president of RCA Records and elected an executive vice president of NBC in 1969. He formerly had been division vice president and general manager of RCA Records, a division of NBC.

Born in Johnsonburg, Pa., in 1920, he graduated from Penn State and earned an MBA from Harvard in 1943. After serving in the Army during World War II, he began his career at RCA in the accounting department in 1950.

Racusin left RCA in 1970 to become vice president of international operations for Readers Digest Corp. and a member of its board of directors. After retiring in 1984 to Hilton Head Island, S.C., he often gave talks on management ethics and other topics.

He and his wife, Bette, moved to Carlsbad five years ago.