50 Years Ago

• The Rev. Roy H. Duquette is a lot prouder about the St. Michael’s High School that he left as director Saturday than the one he joined six years ago. “The attitude of the students when I came to Northampton six years ago was very negative,” Father Duquette remembers. “I would walk down the halls and wouldn’t be spoken to.”
• A family that has served Northampton for 85 years will soon be broken up. The 13 Sisters of St. Joseph who live in a convent next to St. Michael’s schools will leave the city after parochial education ends here later this month. The nuns compare their leaving to the breaking up of a family.

25 Years Ago

• In an interview in her office last week, Northampton Mayor Clare Higgins was cagey about the prospects of her running for a second term. Asked if she’s taken out her papers, she answered, “Not yet.” She declined to comment further.
• After four years as assistant human resources director for Northampton, Tom Acquaro is leaving for a job as director of human resources in Sunny Isles Beach, Fla. Acquaro will be the first human resources director, charged with creating a department from scratch in a three-year-old city that’s building a new city hall.

10 Years Ago

• Two small fires reported in Ward 3 over the holiday weekend were deemed suspicious by police and remained under investigation Tuesday, evoking troubling memories for a community wracked by arson nearly a decade ago, according to City Councilor Ryan O’Donnell. A fire was reported Sunday at the end of Northern Avenue, and one on Monday behind the Walgreens on King Street.
• Republican Gov. Charlie Baker said Tuesday he would sign a bill banning discrimination against transgender people in public accommodations. “No one should be discriminated against in Massachusetts because of their gender identity,” said Baker.