A Look Back, Dec. 3

50 Years Ago

■Donald Graham of Nonotuck Street, Florence, has been named Newspaper Boy of the Month. Don, son of Mr. and Mrs. Donald Graham, has been in the news delivering business for four years. He has 36 customers along Nonotuck, New Street and Baker Hill, and covers over two miles a day.

■The blue spruce on the common in front of the Florence Civic Center will be lighted this season, but the know-how of the late Clifford Upham, who died this year, will be sadly missed. Upham, who was an electrician, took charge of the project for many years.

25 Years Ago

■Smith College’s Ruth Simmons has moved up the list of the nation’s highest paid private college presidents with an annual salary of $320,478. That places her No. 4 among presidents of liberal arts colleges nationally, according to a survey by the Chronicle of Higher Education.

■A group of city officials is seeking help from the public in formulating a new law that would regulate tag sales. City councilors Marianne LaBarge and Maria Tymoczko and Building Commissioner Anthony Patillo have been working for months on an ordinance that aims to draw the line between tag sales and illegally run private businesses that are ongoing.

10 Years Ago

■About 300 students and staff members at the University of Massachusetts Amherst walked out of their classes and offices Monday to rally in memory of Michael Brown, part of an international call to action proclaiming “black lives matter.” The rallies were organized in response to last week’s announcement by a grand jury that it would not indict Darren Wilson, the white police officer who shot and killed unarmed black teenager Michael Brown.

■A retired bishop of the western Massachusetts Roman Catholic diocese, criticized for his handling of clergy sex abuse, was praised at his funeral Monday for what mourners called dedicated and joyful leadership of the church. Retired Bishop Joseph F. Maguire died Nov. 23 at age 95. He was Springfield bishop from 1977 to 1992.