A Look Back, April 29

50 Years Ago

■Hatfield residents last night approved a $3.25 million junior-senior high school by a vote of 183 to 72. Plan 6b was passed by 13 votes more than the 170 necessary to constitute a two-thirds vote. Voters also unanimously approved the purchase of the Blauvelt site for the new school at a cost of $120,000.

■Raymond J. Perry, manager of the Smith College Laundry, has been re-elected president of the New England region of the Institutional Laundry Managers Association. It is the first time in the association’s 35-year history that a manager has been elected to serve a second consecutive two-year term.

25 Years Ago

■Trustee David Bourbeau has a grim vision for the future of Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School if the state does not change the current MCAS test. “It will destroy Smith School,” Bourbeau said. He and other vocational school advocates have decided that the best way to avert such a crisis is to expand the MCAS test — not eliminate it.

■Internationally known painter Gregory Gillespie, a mentor and inspiration to many area artists, died Thursday at his home on Federal Street. He was 63. Gillespie’s works have been extensively exhibited at museums in the United States and Europe, and are in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, and Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

10 Years Ago

■If Northampton adds one new building a year, that could increase the demand for public parking so much the system would reach capacity in six years, according to an evaluation commissioned by the city. Several business owners at a meeting held Monday night to discuss the study, however, think the situation is much more urgent.

■Mayor David J. Narkewicz will meet with senior citizens Wednesday to answer questions and address concerns about the city Parks and Recreation Department’s upcoming move into a large room in the Senior Center. Judging by letters to the editor from people unhappy about the move, Narkewicz is likely to get an earful.