50 Years Ago

• The second annual United Way/Mountain Farms Mall Odd Ball Olympics Charity Tournament will be held tomorrow and Saturday at the mall. Activities will include a ping pong marathon, solitaire challenge, continuous basketball passing, badminton, an indoor bowling challenge, a checkers competition, a giant puzzle, non-gambling poker, a monopoly tournament and pin ball.
• Gary Benoit, of Northampton, got 12 votes for vice president yesterday but lost the Democratic nomination to Sen. Walter F. Mondale, Jimmy Carter’s choice. Actually, the candidacy of Benoit, the 22-year-old Wallace delegate from the First Congressional District, was a pretext to gain podium and national television time to air the views of disgruntled Massachusetts Wallace delegates.

25 Years Ago

• Robert Orlando, behavior interventionist at Center/Pepin schools, was appointed interim assistant principal of Easthampton High School at the School Committee meeting Thursday. The assistant principal’s position was vacant after Charles “Chip” Kaufman was appointed EHS principal last month.
• Air Force Reserve Airman 1st Class Michael J. Pasternak has graduated from basic military training at Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas. He is a 1994 graduate of Northampton High School.

10 Years Ago

• Plans are advancing to bring 51 refugees to Northampton, members of Catholic Charities told the City Council on Thursday. Susannah Crolius, coordinator of outreach and resource development for the Springfield organization, described goals for the coming months. She announced the first refugees could arrive as early as January 2017, with the rest of the families coming at various times during next year.
• A Jones Library trustee frustrated by community backlash over the planned expansion of the building on Amity Street says he’s resigning from the board. Jonathan McCabe said in a telephone interview Friday that he intends to submit his resignation Monday, at which time he will also release a more detailed statement about his reasons for departing from the six-member board after more than three years as a trustee.