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Editor: Officers: Executive
Director: Board
of Directors This newsletter is available semi-annually and will be mailed to all dues paying members of the Alumni Assoc. Annual membership dues. $15. WHS Alumni Association is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, charitable organization. Comments
about this newsletter or general question may be forwqrded to: |
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WHS Alumni Association is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit, charitable organization.
President's
Message Dear
Fellow Alumni: However, in order to continue to be useful to Walpole High School, we must be a dynamic and viable organization. This can only be realized if our Alumni Association continues to grow by increasing our numbers. Therefore, this is a call to all of our fellow alumni who have not yet made a formal commitment to become members of the WHS Alumni Association. To join the WHS Alumni Association, it is simply a matter of contacting Helen Bickford at 508-660-7257, Ext. 178, E-mail the alumni office at alumni@walpole.k12.ma.us. Our Walpole High School building celebrated the one hundredth year anniversary of its location on its present site. We hope you will enjoy the article about the celebration that commemorated this anniversary. Don't forget, our Eighth Annual Alumni Dinner Dance is scheduled for November 28, 2009, which falls during Thanksgiving weekend. We hope you can join us. We are happy to assist reunion committees in planning your reunions. Simply notify the Alumni Association at the above contacts numbers. Jim Brady
Alumni Highlights Jane (Weiss) Harry, '47 (Sterling, VA: Congratulations to Joe Morgan! Another great honor for WHS! I had my son and daughter-in-law with me in October. My granddaughter will be a sophomore at Florida State (rival of my son's University of Miami). My grandson, Sean, in the Air Force, married to Kim. He's stationed in S. Carolina. My two youngest grandchildren will be in 2nd and 4th grades. Molly will be attending her first honors class. They both attend school in Leesburg, VA, very close to me. My bes to all '47ers. Janet (Willis) Ingraham, '45 (Franlin, MA): Still work part-time April-August for Walpole Woodworkers, Inc., 59 years of association. I have five grandchildren and four great grandchildren. I spend lots of time with them. Still play a mean game of golf at my age. Hi to all my graduates of 1945. Priscilla (Young) King, '44 (Westwood, MA): Thanks for keeping all of us informed. John Locke, '51 (Portland, ME): Ann Louise, '48 (Sister) retired (Concord, NH); Lisa Louise Newcity, Prof of Legal Studies, Roger Williams U-Bristol, RI. Adrianne Locke, High School English Teacher, Bolton, MA; Carie Louise Locke, MSW from Simmons. Twins living in Boston. Best wishes to all. Rosemary Looney, '45 (Montecito, CA): I enjoy the newsletters! Thank you. Diane (Cavanaugh) Lynch, '57 (Middleboro, MA): I retired from nursing, am still running my husband's business, but on a seasonal basis to allow me my traveling time. I'm heading to Fryeburg, ME to visit an old friend and in November to the Panama Canal, visiting Guatemala, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. In between I spend time with my son in Newburyport. Valerie (Ellis) Martin, '57 (Boynton Beach, FL): Working in sales for Wachovia Merchant Services, Loring, FL. I came up north for my 50th college reunion at Framingham State College. Have two granddaughters who are now teachers. How time flies! Re Memories - How about swimming at Bird Park or in the "hole" full of leeches in back of the High School? Margaret (Costello) Nash, '52 (Plainville, MA): Earl and I just welcomed (on May 20, 2008) our fifth great grandchild (a girl), making it one great grandson and four great granddaughters. Since we have 14 grandchildren, we are sure there are many more to come! Ann (Barker), '65 and Alan Olson, '63 (Springfield, VA): Both of us are retired now. Seeing more of our three grandchildren. Sister Ellen Powers, '59 (East Walpole, MA): Elected to head of leadership conference of Women Religious (LCWR) Boston, MA for a second term. Marjorie (Boulter) Stacey, '44 (Wrentham, MA): My husband (Charlie) and I celebrated our 60th wedding anniversary on Nov. 9, 2007. We lived in Wareham for 30 years, then moved to Wrentham and have been here for 30 years. We have five children, 14 grandchildren and six great grandchildren. Susan (Kennedy) Stewart, '61 (St. Augustine, FL): I've beaten cancer twice - ovarian in '05 and breast in '07. Chemo is the pits! I lost my hair on Thanksgiving Day. It came back in April of '08, darker and lots of curls. Pamela (Calf) Travers, '68 (Walpole, MA): Even though I graduated from Fontbonne Academy, I appreciate being included in the class of '68 reunion festivities. Carole (Taylor) Vernazzarro, '58 (Norwood, MA): Had a wonderful time at the 50th class reunion. Looking forward to the next one. Audrey Urguhart, '51 (Gainsville, FL): After 37 years in nursing, I find myself coordinating a dental clinic. Of all things! This is a volunteer position, which I thoroughly enjoy. I still spend several months each year in the North Carolina mountains as Gainsville in August can be brutal! Keep up the good work in support of WHS. Gary Whittemore, '76 (East Walpole, MA): My wife, Lisa and I had the pleasure of watching our two sons (Ryan '08 and Connor '10) play for the Walpole High Boys Lacrosse Team, who went 21-1 for the season. Their only loss was in the Division 2 Eastern MA finals. Ryan will play lacrosse at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY. Connor still has two more years at WHS. Richard Whelan, '55 (Norfolk, MA): Marilyn and I live in Norfolk and I am still working part-time. Our daughter, Alison, just presented us with our third grandchild, Naomi, this week. Guess this shall keep us busy. Patrick Shield, '05 (Walpole, MA): Studying at U Mass-Boston Linda (Andreassi) Ridgeway, '86 (Walpole, MA): I recently moved back to Walpole and purchased a home in October 2008. After 14 years I missed the area and wanted to move back. I have two small children, Michael and Matthew, ages 3 and 5 and want them to experience the same great education that I did. PS. I love the class reunions! REMEMBER
WHEN Walpole Overview by Colin Harding Trains were and still are very important to Walpole - I can remember when the rail line went all the way through to Hartford, Connecticut - during the hurricanes of 1954 and 1955, major portions of the line were washed out in Connecticut and never rebuilt. The station, I think it was built in 1885, is a 'union' station. That means it served two railroads. The now Franklin line was the New Haven Railroad and the line to Framingham was the Old Colony line. Both had passenger service through Walpole - that's whey when you look at the station, it looks like it has two waiting rooms. It does - one for each railroad when it was built. At one time when the line from East Walpole through Walpole Heights to Wrentham was still operational, you could not enter or leave Walpole Center without going under or over a railroad track. Walpole was in Ripley's Believe-It-Or-Not because of this. I remember visiting our good friends, the Osterhouts, at 713 East St., just down from the bridge, and I remember the house shaking when the train went by. Robbins Road essentially ended where we lived, there was really no road to Elm St., only a very rough trail. I can remember during heaving snowstorms, we were always the last to be plowed out. The plows had to back up all the way to Pemberton St. after reaching our house, they didn't like to do it. My house was built in the early-to-mid-1700s. The original part is the dining room. The fireplace has a series of ovens to the right, this is where the food was cooked in pre-Revolutionary War days. It has two chimneys. If you walk down Robbins Road to the Rural Cemetery where my mother is buried, go to the old section of the cemetery down the hill toward North St., you will find the grave markings for the Nason family. This family was one of the early, if not the earliest, residents of 45 Robbins Road. Our favorite store in the neighborhood was Barnes Store that was near the corner of Winthrop and Pemberton Streets - build in 1950. I used to buy my baseball cards there. I kept the cards and gave the bubble gum to my brother. The area was called the 'bush" - don't ask me why. The housing development behind 45 Robbins Road which included Haynes and Vane Streets, etc., was called the "Project". It was built in 1950 to provide affordable housing for World War II veterans. There was a lot of resistance to it, but some of my best friends lived there. The streets were named after Massachusetts governors. Walpole had an interesting sociological and economic make-up. It was a town of immigrants - primarily because of the mills and factories. The Scots and English arrived first and settled in Walpole in the 1600 to 1700s. Walpole actually became a town in 1724 breaking away from Dedham. The Irish arrived in the mid - 1800s and the Italians, most from the poor areas of southern Italy, arrived in the 1900s. It was an interesting social structure. The Scots and English were mostly the mill and factory owners and lived on Plimpton and Common Streets. The Irish, because most could speak English well, even when I lived there, were the mill and factory workers. The Irish used to lord it over the Italians because most didn't know the language. I can remember the Italian market on East Street toward Gilmores. There was another one on Main Street, Ciannavei's, I think it was, next to or very close to Mannochio's where we bought our shoes. I went to Fisher School - the old one next to the Aggie School. In my first grade class, we had 17 kids: 9 spoke English, 3 spoke only Italian and 5 spoke Finnish. There was a large Finnish community up on Bullard Street in North Walpole. I often think about the debates today about teaching kids who don't speak English to speak English in the schools - the kids I went to school with learned English very quickly just be being in the classroom. There were less than 100 students at the Fisher School and there were two grades per classroom - 1st and 2nd in one room, etc. The 5th and 6th grade teacher, Edith Adams, was also the principal. Robbins Road is named after William Robbins who came to Walpole in 1691 and owned all the land between Pemberton and Elm Streets. The original family homestead was roughly where the 'stump dump is now across from the VFW. I can still remember the old Robbins barn that sat near the location of the parking lot for the Johnson Middle School. Bud Meau had a garage in it.
SAVE THE DATE: Our annual dinner dance will be held during Thanksgiving weekend - Saturday, November 28.
WALPOLE
HIGH SCHOOL CELEBRATES ITS CENTENNIAL Current and former students, teachers and administrators of Walpole High assembled on April 15 to celebrate the school's 100 years on Common Street. The first students to graduate from the then-tiny school built atop Butcher Hill in 1908 received their sheepskins in the spring of 1909 with Superintendent Frederick Kingman, School Committee Chairman Edward Plimpton and Principal George Morris on hand. Tables in the school's foyer displayed century-old pictures of the school and a class photo from the 1920s while visitors were able to peruse yearbooks from as far back as 1940 and view several individual student pictures from the 20s. In the early to mid-19th century, Walpole's high school-age students were taught in the homes of "schoolmans"' or schoolmasters." Walpole first established a high school in 1870. Named the Centre School, the facility graduated its first class of 15 students in 1874. The Centre School burned down in 1884. Classes were subsequently held at the lower Town Hall until the Village School on School Street was converted to a new high school in 1898. Walpole school officials sought a more permanent solution in 1906 on land donated by George Plimpton, the new school, equipped with five classrooms, a gym, an assembly hall and labs, was designed to accommodate population growth for 10 to 15 years. The high school was expanded in 1928, 1955, 1973 and 2003.
Deceased Alumni The following lists recently deceased graduates of WHS, of whom we are aware. To include names of the recently deceased in the next Alumni Newsletter, please notify WHS Alumni Association, Inc., Box 634, Walpole, MA 02081, or Tel. (508)660-7257, ext. 178. Edmond
Wronski, '42; Grace O'Brien, '38; Lisa Anne Ciavattone, '79; The following deceased attended Walpole Public Schools: Virginia
DiTommaso Daddario, age 95; Walter LaCivita, age 90; Calendar
of Events
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