■First place winner in the Northampton Jaycees Christmas Lighting contest was Miss Helen Chmyzinski, whose home is at 227 Prospect St. Co-chairmen of the contest are Robert Cahillane and David Neal. Miss Chmyzinski will receive a $25 savings bond.
■Julie and David Eisenhower, formerly of Northampton, spent Christmas at the White House. Everyone received “nice presents, but nothing spectacular,” said Julie. Her parents, President and Mrs. Richard Nixon, gave her a bright Chinese red pants suit with a wide zipper on the hip length over-blouse.
■Starting with the New Year, every baby born to a city family will get the present that can save lives: a smoke detector. Fire Chief Lawrence J. Jones will inaugurate the Northampton program by giving a decorative fire dog smoke detector to the first baby born to a city family.
■South Hadley resident Dan Barry, 42, will make his first foray into space on shuttle flight No. STS-72 on Jan. 11. A physician with doctorates in electrical engineering and computer science, Barry is the husband of Mount Holyoke College faculty member Susan Barry.
■Dr. Neil Nusbaum, chief of staff of Northampton VA Medical Center, has been appointed professor in the Department of Medicine in the School of Medicine at University of Massachusetts Worcester. He will serve as associate dean of veterans’ affairs.
■Fazzi, a Northampton-based, national healthcare consulting firm, has announced that it is making a $10,000 donation to the Northampton Survival Center, a program that provides food and other resources to low-income individuals and families in the area.