John E. Folan
John E. Folan, candidate for the unexpired term of Selectman John M. Mutch in the coming special election, enters the field of candidates not only with previous experience on the selectmen’s board but with the added advantage of having gained that experience in the early days of Norwood’s present charter. He sat with almost the first board to serve under the town manager form of government. John Gillooly was one of the first five on the board under the new charter set-up, but after serving a year refused to run again, and Mr. Folan was elected to the Board for a three-year term to succeed him.
Mr. Folan, Norwood born and educated, rounded out his studies at Bryant & Stratton business school, and then entered the shoe business. He had worked in his brother’s store in Norwood after school, and had been sent on errands in Boston where he decided that to run around with half a dozen pairs of shoes under your arm, to be one of the business, would be nothing short of great. His first job was with Rice & Hutchins in Boston, his next with the Converse Rubber Company of Malden, the firm with which he is still connected.
His work has always been in the sales line and in his earlier days with the Converse Company he did a lot of traveling as far west as the west coast and hitting all the spots in between. He admits it is a wonderful way to see the country, and that the first trips on the road are pure pleasure, but adds that after a time one begins to hope the boss will decide to go to Chicago himself rather than send you. For many years he was in the sales office of the company and not traveling but he gave that up recently to go back into active selling to department stores and large outfits in the Boston vicinity.
Town Offices
Mr. Folan’s services to the town in the way of committee work and office holding add up to a goodly number. His first town job was as a member of the Board of electric light commissioners who functioned before the new charter wept into effect. He went on the board to fill the unexpired term of Thomas H. Houlihan and served two years. Then he served the three years on the board of selectmen. He put in from three to four years as a member of the building committee for the Junior High School, and following that was made chairman of the building committee for the new hospital by the Board of Trustees. More recently he has served on the special committee appointed to advise the selectmen on electric light rates.
At present he is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Norwood Hospital, and he has been a resident of the St. Vincent de Paul conference of St. Catherine’s Church for the past seventeen years. He also is a director of the Morris Plan Bank. He is a past exalted ruler and a life member of the Norwood Lodge of Elks, and a member of the Knights of Columbus.
Hobby Is Baseball
Mr. Folan cites baseball as his real hobby, and also expressed a love of fishing which he pursues in the summer months at Scituate. He has one son, John, Jr., with whom he now makes his home.
The Free Press in an attempt to have the public fully acquainted with the issues and candidates in the coming special election presented a personality portrait of one of the new candidates last week, and introduces Mr. Folan and Mr. Houghton this week.
—Ed. Note
(All articles originally published in the Norwood Messenger)