Naomi was born October 28, 1941 to George and Saima Wastila in Superior, Wisconsin. She passed away November 8, 2023 from cancer. Her family moved to Brooklyn where she saw Jackie Robinson play for the Dodgers and when she was 10, they moved back to Superior. She was a Wisconsin Scholar at the University of Wisconsin majoring in chemistry education. She went to graduate school in chemistry at USC doing research on organo-phosphorus compounds. It was there she met her husband, Ivan Otterness.