Jim Bridgman

50 Years Ago

  • Gazette reporter Jonathan Neumann has won a first-place award in a national education reporting contest for a series of articles on the University of Massachusetts School of Education. Neumann yesterday was named one of 12 first place winners in the 1975 Charles Stewart Mott Awards Competition sponsored by the Education Writers Association.
  • Grant Bishop and Margaret Van Sant have pooled their theatrical experience to found Northampton’s youngest and most unusual theater venture — New Stages 2. The “vest pocket” theater is located in the basement of a South Street apartment building.

25 Years Ago

  • Dignitaries at the ceremonial ground-breaking for the much-awaited rehabilitation of the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Bridge Friday took the opportunity to congratulate and bid goodbye to Gov. A. Paul Cellucci, who next month will become U.S. ambassador to Canada. Cellucci attended the festivities, which took place inside a tent at the Sportsman’s Marina on Route 9.
  • A group of students, teachers, parents and administrators are looking at changing the long-block system at Northampton High School. Begun at NHS in 1996, long-block scheduling, which supporters say allows teachers to explore subjects in greater depth, also complicates scheduling for students who want to take arts and elective classes, as well as some foreign language and advanced placement classes.

10 Years Ago

  • Beem Us Up, a troupe of ace wordsmiths who won two years ago, took back the Northampton Adult Spelling Bee trophy Wednesday by knocking out the Bridge Street School Parent Teacher Organization’s team in a heated final round. The team is made up of friends Alison Greene, Shoshana Marchand and Rachel Simpson.
  • As a project to expand the Jones Library continues moving forward, library trustees are pledging to do what they can to preserve the Kinsey Memorial Garden but are reluctant to make a commitment not to disturb it. Austin Sarat, president of the trustees, expressed concern Monday about a petition article that will be presented at the annual Town Meeting recommending that the garden be untouched by the building project.