■Henry Chapin Jr. and Alan Thackery recently enlisted in the U.S. Navy and are both undergoing training at the U.S. Naval Training Center, Great Lakes, Ill. Both young men are recent graduates of Williamsburg High School. The youths enlisted under the Buddy Program and High School Seaman Program.
■Good luck came in double measure to the Graves family yesterday when Kathy, age 10, and Kevin, 13, were chosen as Newspaper Carriers of the Month, in connection with National Newspaper Week. Each was awarded a $25 savings bond by the Daily Hampshire Gazette.
■Episcopalians in western Massachusetts consecrated a new bishop in a weekend ceremony filled with music, dancing and solemn ritual. The Rev. Gordon Scruton was confirmed Saturday as bishop of the 25,000-member diocese in a morning ceremony attended by about 1,000 people at the Trinity Church in Springfield.
■Deerfield Urethane, a plastic film manufacturer that is the first tenant in Whately’s new industrial park, was to hold a grand opening celebration today at its new building off Long Plain Road. Production, though, isn’t quite ready to start, its president says.
■Volkswagen of Northampton is changing its business model, from being primarily a new car dealership to one that focuses on the used market. Dealership owner Andy Feuerstein says that the business is retrenching in an attempt to capture the most active part of the automobile market, which since the recession hit late last decade, has been pre-owned cars.
■Under brisk autumn skies and against the dramatic backdrop of the Holyoke Range, Carolyn “Biddy” Martin was inaugurated Sunday as the 19th president — and first woman — to head Amherst College. Known as a strong advocate of liberal arts education, Martin comes to Amherst from her former posts as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and provost of Cornell University.