A Look Back: Jan. 6

50 Years Ago

■The Rev. Robert Scott Denig will be ordained to the priesthood at St. John’s Episcopal Church Saturday at noon. Denig began serving as curate of St. John’s last July.

■With four vote commitments in hand, City Councilor Robert Patenaude appears to be in a strong position to unseat incumbent council president Edward Kochan when the city’s governing body reorganizes tonight. The only vote Kochan has firmly in hand, besides his own, is that of Harry McColgan, who also supported him last year.

25 Years Ago

■In an action that came as no surprise to anyone, the new City Council voted Mary Clare Higgins its new president. She takes over for Patrick M. Goggins, who did not win re-election. Higgins, the top vote getter in last November’s municipal election, above even Mayor Mary L. Ford, received eight of nine council votes to win the presidency.

■Smith College President Ruth J. Simmons told an inauguration gathering yesterday that when she shops in the many cities she visits, she is usually followed by store security, an experience shared by many black Americans. “I’m happy to say I’ve never had that experience here in Northampton,” Simmons recounted yesterday, at the Northampton inaugural reception and luncheon.

10 Years Ago

■Gregory Nuttelman, chief operator of the Northampton’s Mountain Street water treatment plant, has been named Northampton DPW Employee of the Year. Nuttelman is essentially in charge of a facility that operates around the clock seven days a week to meet the city’s daily demand for potable water.

■A city native who lived a modest life until her death in early 2011 shocked those who knew her when she left $20 million to two New York City institutions in her will. Mary McConnell Bailey, who lived most of her life in New York City, willed $10 million each to the New York Public Library and the Central Park Conservancy.

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