■Eighty-nine members attended the annual meeting of the National Retired Teachers Association, which was held this week at the Golf Club in Haydenville. Retiring president Clarence Holway was presented a gift by the group. Miss Anna McDonnell, former Northampton High School mathematics teacher, was elected the new president.
■The St. John Cantius Women’s Club has selected two Northampton High School senior girls as the recipients of scholarships this year. The scholarships will go to Martha Gross and Nancy Kolodzinski. Both girls selected for academic achievement will attend the University of Massachusetts.
■Amherst hotel owner Robert L. Shumway and his West Springfield business partner took control of the Inn at Northampton yesterday, closing the sale of the 124-room hotel from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Shumway and Edward O’Leary paid $2 million for the 27-year-old inn at 1 Atwood Drive.
■After more than a week of public speculation and buildup, it’s official. University of Massachusetts President Michael Hooker will become Chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Hooker, 49, has been at UMass just under three years.
■The Kestrel Trust is beginning a celebration of its 40th anniversary of protecting essential qualities of the Pioneer Valley with a series of events, including a benefit concert by local musician Erica Wheeler, which will take place at the Porter Phelps Huntington Museum in Hadley in late May.
■Students in Easthampton will have a new high school in 2013 after city residents approved an $18.1 million debt exclusion override Tuesday by a nearly 3-1 margin. The vote means that the city will raise property taxes over a 20-year period to build, equip and furnish a 110,000-square-foot high school building on Williston Avenue.