Jim Bridgman

50 Years Ago

  • The Northampton School Committee is expected to appoint a new vice principal of John F. Kennedy Junior High School tomorrow night after interviewing three candidates. The candidates, who will replace Robert E. Anderson Jr., who is retiring, are: Sister Mary Magdalen, who was principal of St. Michael’s High School for six years until it closed in June; Robert W. Polhemus, an industrial arts teacher at Northampton High School; and Eileen Popkoski, a high school teacher in Needham.
  • The third annual Pioneer Valley Muster Days in October are likely to be called off, sponsors of the event say, because out-of-state participants are reluctant to pay a $5 firearms permit fee required under the state’s firearms identification law. Leonard Day, military commander of the Sixth Massachusetts Continentals, said that out-of-state militia units are choosing to cancel appearances here, rather than pay the permit fee.

25 Years Ago

  • Neither drenching rain nor blazing sun deters bargain hunters from the annual sidewalk sales. And so it was Thursday, when morning downpours gave way to sun by afternoon and the sidewalks were crammed with both bargains and their hunters for the start of the fifth annual SummerFest.
  • Toothbrushes in hand, Pioneer Valley residents are being called to take up the challenge and win back the Guinness World Record for the most people brushing their teeth simultaneously. Big Brush II, a repeat of the 1998 event here that made the international record book, will be Saturday, August. 11, in the Armory Street parking lot during the annual Taste, Northampton’s Food Festival.

10 Years Ago

  • David A. Lowy became the first University of Massachusetts Amherst alumnus appointed to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on Wednesday. Lowy, one of three judges nominated by Gov. Charlie Baker to fill vacancies on the state’s highest court, was confirmed unanimously by the eight-member Governor’s Council. He graduated from UMass in 1983.
  • With permanent Amherst town manager Paul Bockelman not starting in Amherst until Aug. 22, the Select Board is turning to a familiar person to serve as interim town manager for nearly three weeks. Assistant Town Manager David Ziomek, who is also director of conservation and development, was named to the temporary post by the Select Board on Monday and will assume those duties on Tuesday.