50 Years Ago
- A community canning center sponsored by the local Women in Agriculture group will be established in Northampton under a $43,000 federal grant awarded today by the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) program. The center will provide low-cost canning equipment to home gardeners who want to preserve their own produce.
- At its peak, as many as 700 to 1,000 persons turned out for a 24-hour graduation party for Northampton High School seniors between Tuesday night and 12:30 this morning. The party, which was organized by members of the senior class, featured beer and local rock bands. Arrangements for this year’s site — a large grassy field near the DAR park in Goshen — were only completed hours before the commencement.
25 Years Ago
- Thirty-six years after she founded the Pioneer Valley Ballet School, Gail Giere Collins will retire as its artistic director and has sold the school to a New Haven, Conn., couple, ending a tenure that inspired the careers of some of the area’s best dancers. Collins has sold the school to Ruth and Neble Barker.
- Teacher Amy Meltzer of Solomon Schechter Day School of the Pioneer Valley in Florence has been named a winner of the Harold Grinspoon National Award for Excellence in Jewish Education. Meltzer teaches first and second grade at Solomon Schechter, as well as adult education classes.
10 Years Ago
- The University of Massachusetts Amherst will get $15 million to dramatically expand its research and teaching in data sciences and cybersecurity, an investment that officials said Friday could pay big dividends in western Massachusetts and beyond. The money will come from the MassMutual Foundation.
- Democratic U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren will speak at the World War II Club in Northampton on Sunday, where she’s expected to talk about economic inequality in Amherst, the bar’s manager said.