Douglas R. Starrett was honored at the YMCA dinner dance at Ellinwood Country Club for his dedication and devotion to the Athol Area YMCA for more than 40 years. He was a member of the board of directors from 1954 to 1994 and president of the board from 1962 to 1994. Donald MacKay, president of the Y, presented Starrett with a framed photograph of the Y building. Joseph Hawkins, executive director of the Y, presented him with a plaque, which will be displayed outside an exercise room at the Y that will be dedicated to Starrett.
Athol selectmen voted 3-2 to accept a proposal from the Teen Task Force and gave the task force the go-ahead to continue their work toward opening a teen center and providing services and activities for the youth in town.
It’s that time of year again — so kick off those galoshes and hunker down for an evening of melodies from yester-year as the YMCA Minstrel Show re-enters the spotlight. An extravaganza of entertainment is offered. The format was designed by director Marty Picard to get you toe tapping, singing with the beat and wondering how and what comes next.
River Rat organizer Dave Flint and fellow Lion Rob Morton took advantage of the warm weather to clear a few trees from the river in the area of the railroad trestle on South Athol Road to insure the river is open for the Athol to Orange River Rat Race.
There were 157 entries in the annual science fair at Mahar Regional School. The senior high grand prize winner was Amber Howe-McCarty for her project “Bacteria and antibiotics.” Eben Cross and Meghan Holmgren tied for the middle school grand prize. “Does the shape, size, and weight affect an object’s flight?” was the project conducted by Cross, and Holmgren’s project was “Dark light adaptation — does age affect it?” Rebecca Snyder was presented the Doris Barber Award for Excellence by Lester Scafidi. Barber, a retired teacher, coordinated the science fair for many years. There were 57 prizes awarded in high school and middle school environmental, behavioral, physical and biological categories.
Superintendent of Schools James P. Kelley was granted his fourth year and tenure contract by members of the Athol School Committee.
At a meeting of the board of directors of the Athol YMCA, it was unanimously voted to proceed with construction of the proposed addition even though construction costs have increased substantially since the original estimate.
Over 300 people turned out at the Ellinwood Country Club to pay tribute to recently retired pro-groundskeeper Ted Anderson and his wife, Blanche.
Army Capt. James A. Lake, 24, son of Mr. and Mrs. George V. Lake of Athol, has received a third Bronze Star for meritorious achievement while he was in Cu Chi, Vietnam. Now home on leave, Capt. Lake, his wife, Nancy, and their daughter, Karen, will leave in two weeks for Babenhausen, Germany, where he will serve three years with the 36th Artillery Group as a signal officer.
Major Philip C. Lawton, U.S. Air Force navigator and son of Mr. and Mrs. John B. Lawton of Athol, has recently been decorated with the Distinguished Flying Cross at Tan Son Nhut Air Base in Vietnam. The 34-year-old major was cited for heroism during an RF-4 Phantom reconnaissance mission over awesomely defended areas to obtain intelligence data concerning enemy activity.
Sunday morning worship service at the Central Congregational Church in Orange was attended by 220 members of that church, the United Methodist and First Universalist Church congregations in a continuing program of pilgrimage and brotherhood.
Orange Shoe Corporation, Division of Green Shoe Mfg. Co., Makers of Stride-Rite Shoes, wants to hire a Stitching Room Machinist.
The annual Klondike Derby of Western District, Monadnock Council Boy Scouts is now history. More than 150 scouts and leaders participated in the derby at Elliot’s Farm in Petersham. After the excitement of the competition and the eclipse, which many of the boys viewed with cardboard props, it was announced the winning team was the Rattlesnake Patrol of Troop 37 in Gilbertville.
The Pentagon plans to shut down or reduce strength at 371 military installations here and abroad, a move designed to save more than $914 million.
Fifty-three years in the same line of business and all that time in the present location, Herbert C. Barrus, president of the Athol Clothing Company, and the oldest Athol merchant, retired from the well-known firm in the Webb Block on Main Street. His interests have been purchased by Jett E. Stowell and Joseph G. Hausmann, both having been with the store for a long time. These two men will continue the business under the same firm name and will maintain the same general business policy.
S/Sgt. Joseph R. Armienti, 24, son of Nicholas Armienti of Athol, now serving with an antitank company of the 26th Infantry Regiment in Germany, has been awarded the Bronze Start Medal “for meritorious achievement in connection with military operations against the enemy in the European Theater of Operations from 6 June 1944 to 15 December 1944.”
John D. Johnson, 21, U.S. Army paratrooper, formerly attached to the infantry, was reported “missing in action” on Dec. 27, according to word received by his mother, Mrs. Anna Johnson of Athol.
Pvt. Charles A. Martin, son of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Martin of Orange, was seriously wounded in action in Germany on Feb. 22, according to a War Department telegram received by his parents. He was previously wounded on Feb. 13.
Two Orange men, members of an infantry division which was reported by the Germans as having been completely annihilated, are now prisoners of the Germans, according to telegrams sent to their families by the International Red Cross. They are Pvt. Edward R. Hudson and Pfc. Emerson A. Maynard.
Four Bronze Stars have been awarded to S/Sgt. Arnold Bergeron, son of Mr. and Mrs. Percy Bergeron of Orange, flight armament chief with the 20th Bomber Command in India for participation in air offensives over India-Burma, China, Japan and Sumatra. He has been stationed in North Africa and is in India at the present time.
The war-busy Boston and Maine railroad marked, without pausing for ceremonies, the 100th anniversary of completion of the Fitchburg Railroad, predecessor of the B. and M. system. The first railroad in the nation to be built without state aid, the 49-mile route was built in 21 ½ months at a cost of $1,132,000.