■Three hundred and sixteen graduating Northampton High School students were urged last night to incorporate “hope, faith, persistence and time” into their already established concerns and commitments. Speaking at the ceremonies, Dr. Donald E. Weidaas, lab director for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said that time and persistence are necessary to bring about change.
■Three patients at Northampton State Hospital’s closed ward broke a door to gain freedom at 9 this morning and two hours later were recaptured, without resistance, in Southampton. Southampton Police Chief Robert Laveille and Officer Joseph LaFond picked the trio up on Route 10 at Fomer Road.
■A black bear paid a lunchtime visit to the River Run apartment complex yesterday, the latest in a growing number of bear sightings in that section of the city. The bear drew a crowd of residents who watched from the parking lot and the balconies of their apartments as the animal sauntered about the grounds.
■Data collected by the Massachusetts Department of Education show that thousands of Bay State children, despite all the hubbub over the rise of after-school activities and computer CD-ROMs, remain glued to their TV sets. Almost a third of the state’s public school fourth-graders watch more than four hours of TV a day, the state found.
■The director of nursing at the former Northampton State Hospital for more than two decades has died. Florence Eaton died May 5, at the age of 95 in Sparks, Nev., where she has lived for the past 15 years. Eaton began working at Northampton State Hospital in 1953 and retired in 1976.
■Joseph Smith, vice principal of Crocker Farm School in Amherst, is the new principal at Leeds School in Northampton. Superintendent Isabelina Rodriguez offered him the job Tuesday. Smith is expected to take the reins in mid-July.