A Look Back: Sept. 14

50 Years Ago

■A delegation of parents of Florence Grammar School first graders are expected to attend tonight’s meeting of the Northampton School Committee to protest a projected class size of 30 students. Superintendent John M. Buteau attributes the class size to the closing of the nearby Annunciation School.

■Northampton State Hospital Superintendent Dr. Harry Goodman plans to resign in November, the state Department of Mental Health said yesterday. Goodman, 65, who began in state service in 1941, has served as superintendent since 1958.

25 Years Ago

■The Rev. Roger Barnett, a beloved local minister and respected elder and religious leader, died unexpectedly Sunday just before he was to preach a service and perform a double baptism at the Easthampton Congregational Church. Barnett, 71, was formerly minister of the Edwards Church in Northampton and chaplain and chairman of the religion department at the Williston-Northampton School.

■Two years after the Green Street Café dropped its lunch business, its owners are reviving it, hoping that a new parking garage at Smith College will lift the prospects of businesses on Green Street. John Sielski, co-owner of the café with Jim Dozmati, said the lunch business would begin today and continue weekdays.

10 Years Ago

■Cooley Dickinson Hospital is planning to close its inpatient pediatric unit, citing advances in medicine and a decline in the number of young patients requiring hospital stays, hospital officials said Thursday. The move is part of a larger restructuring of pediatric services underway at the hospital.

■After slick floors caused by high humidity forced the closing of schools in Amherst Thursday, maintenance crews worked steadily to dry the buildings out. Up to 20 minor falls were reported in most of the school district’s six buildings over the course of the school day Wednesday.

]]>