Civic and Social: Couple Recall Half Century of Service to Norwood-September 30, 1978

William and Gladys Hyland came to Norwood 47 years ago, and for almost 50 years they were an active force in the community. Between them, the husband and wife have given hundreds of hours of service to the town — in civic, social and service organizations.

Norwood was a small, quiet town back in 1931, and the young engineer and his school teacher wife saw a pleasant life stretching ahead of them. They weren’t disappointed. Norwood became their home town and now, even after years of growth and change, they like what they see.

“I feel that the town has tremendous stability,” Hyland said. “It has expanded, but it has been a sensible, uniform expansion. I like the town, and I think it is in pretty good shape.”

He speaks with authority because he knows the town well. He served in the first representative town meeting body, in 1950. He was a library trustee in the early 1940s, is the immediate past president of the Norwood Historical Society and was a member of the local chamber of commerce for 40 years. He was a past grand knight of the Knights of Columbus. Over the years he also served on such town committees as the parking and traffic commission and the beautification committee. He is still a member of the latter.

Hyland’s professional background brought a special expertise to the town. A 1922 graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a degree in mechanical engineering, he went to work in 1926 for the Boston engineering firm of Fay, Spofford and Thorndike, became a vice president and 52 years later is still associated with the company. He is a member of the firm’s board of directors and, at 77 years of age, still goes into the office one day a week “to keep in touch.”

He is a past president of the Boston Society of Civil Engineers and the Consulting Engineers Council. Some years ago he was also appointed to the Boston zoning board of appeals and served for four years.

When Hyland looks back on his years of work, his memory ranges over many places. “My most interesting work was between 1940 and 1960 when I was manager of all the work we did for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,” he recalled. That work involved designs for military airports and housing developments from Hudson Bay to Greenland to Alaska. “We had to solve problems of working on permafrost where a warm building might depress the land and sink,” he said.

His firm also designed both the Bourne and Sagamore bridges at the Cape Cod canal, and he was involved with the initial plans for expansion of Logan Airport in the early 1940s, to take care of the new big planes that would be landing.

Hyland’s dedication to his work was clearly delineated in one of his first jobs when he was the resident engineer in Gloucester for construction of new sewers and upgrading of the existing pipes. To check out the condition of one old big pipe, 1,500 feet long, Hyland lay down on a board and pushed himself through the pipe that was just wide enough for elbow room. It was a working sewer.

“I can’t imagine any engineer doing that today,” he said with a chuckle. He is sure he will never forget that experience.

Mrs. Hyland’s dedication to her interests is equally impressive. A graduate of Smith College in 1922, she married William Hyland 50 years ago in Manchester, N.H., where they had both been born and grew up. After she graduated from college, she taught English at Manchester High School. When she married, she stopped teaching and devoted herself to her husband and, soon, to her two daughters.

But Gladys Hyland was in no sense a typical housewife. As a young girl and young woman she was a fire buff, chasing fires throughout Manchester and the countryside. She also loved to work on cars and, tutored by her two brothers, she learned how to grease motors and change oil — which she did at every opportunity, lying on her back under the car, dirty and happy, a completely liberated young woman.

Like her husband, Mrs. Hyland became thoroughly involved in Norwood activities. She was a member of the Women’s Community Committee for 20 years, in the 1950s and 1960s, is a life member of the Norwood Catholic Women’s Club and served for many years on the Norwood Girl Scout Council. While on the council she started the Wing Girl Scouts program in the late 1940s.

Her smile broadens as she looks back on those happy years. About 50 girls joined the program and went to ground school and took flying instruction at Norwood Airport. They used Piper Cub planes and collected old newspapers and sold them to pay for the courses.

“All the girls graduated from ground school and each one of them got five hours of flying time,” Mrs. Hyland related. “They all got their student pilot license.”

Mrs. Hyland also ran the thrift shop on Guild Street for many years. “I just fitted in wherever I thought I could be helpful,” she said in her soft voice as she recalled her years of involvement.

Now 80 years old, she lives quietly, slowed down by the effects of several strokes in recent years. But she still moves around under her own power, still enjoys going out with her husband, driving around the countryside and dining in restaurants.

For both, it has been a good life. And still is.

Archival Note: This article has been dynamically reconstructed from the original public record print archives of the Patriot Ledger