Talk of the Town–June 7, 1981

A vibrant early June day brings milestones and spirited debate to the municipal landscape as the high school graduates its largest class and town officials grapple with the constraints of community infrastructure.

Front Page & Civic Life

Senior Property Tax Reform Legislation Advances Legislation designed to overhaul the Commonwealth’s property tax abatement laws for senior citizens has successfully passed through the state’s Joint Committee on Taxation. The sweeping reform bill was jointly filed by State Representative Gregory W. Sullivan (D-Norwood) and former Selectman Mary Fox.

If signed into law, the statute would fundamentally shift eligibility criteria by lowering the minimum age guideline for the senior tax abatement from 70 to 65. Additionally, the bill indexes gross income limitations upward to allow seniors to earn additional income; thresholds would increase from $6,000 to $8,000 for single individuals, and from $8,000 to $10,000 for married couples. Crucially, the home value of applicants would be entirely excluded from eligibility determinations. According to Representative Sullivan, the state’s senior citizen abatement metrics have languished without revision for approximately five years. The bill currently sits before the House Ways and Means Committee awaiting further action.

Richard Lind Jr. Steps in for Student Government Day Local governance found fresh hands last week during the town’s annual Student Government Day exercises. Norwood Town Manager John J. Carroll spent the morning introducing his youthful administrative stand-in, fifteen-year-old Richard Lind Jr., to the nuanced complexities of municipal administration.

Carroll provided a comprehensive review of executive duties before escorting the Norwood High School sophomore on an administrative tour of municipal facilities. Richard Lind Jr. is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Lind Sr. of 96 Bruce Road. He was one of several local high school students selected to temporarily assume the responsibilities of various town officials for the day.

Community & Social Life

Kiwanis Club Formulates Field Day and Meeting Plans The Kiwanis Club has finalized arrangements for its upcoming weekly gathering and a grand outdoor summer event. The club will meet at 12:15 p.m. this Wednesday at the Honolulu restaurant on Route 1 to host a featured discussion titled “Women in Kiwanis,” which will be immediately followed by the monthly board meeting.

Looking ahead to the weekend, the organization will host its expansive Kiwanis Day on Sunday at the eighty-acre Bryant Hill Farm on Bryant Hill Road (off Route 68 via Route 122A from Worcester) in Holden, the established site of the local hearing ear dog program. Attending families are requested to pack their own lunches, though the club will provide pony rides, balloons, ice cream, and hot dogs. In the event of inclement weather, festivities will shift inside the farm’s historic barn facility.

Drop-In Center Announces June Lip-Reading and Activity Slate The local drop-in center has published its updated mid-June calendar, highlighting a robust mix of educational classes and social tournaments. Specialized lip-reading sessions are scheduled to commence at 10:00 a.m. tomorrow, with subsequent instructional dates locked in for June 12 and June 16.

In addition to classroom instruction, the center’s interactive recreation schedule kicks off at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow and will repeat every Tuesday, featuring competitive rounds of darts, checkers, Sorry, and Scrabble. Traditional card players can find standing weekly games as well: cribbage tournaments are slated for 9:30 a.m. every Monday and Tuesday, whist parties will convene at 1:30 p.m. every Thursday, and a specialized line dancing session will take over the floor at 2:00 p.m. on June 18.

Women’s Community Committee Funds Infant Safety Car Seats A targeted grant of $3,000 has been officially presented to Norwood Hospital by the Women’s Community Committee of Norwood to establish a pioneering newborn safety initiative. The funds will be utilized exclusively to purchase infant safety car seats, which will be maintained by the medical facility and loaned out directly to parents whose children are delivered at the hospital.

The presentation ceremony brought together Barbara Morrison, president of the committee; Patricia Lang, R.N., who serves as the hospital’s childbirth education coordinator; Dr. Victor R. Popeo, chief of pediatrics; and Grace Bayer, committee treasurer.

CETA Planning Board Details Wednesday Agenda The Norwood CETA Consortium’s Advisory Manpower Planning Board has issued a public notice for its upcoming executive session. The board is scheduled to meet at 10:00 a.m. this Wednesday at the central Norwood CETA office. According to the published agenda, the meeting will focus heavily on administrative reconfiguration, vocational-education programs, the roll-out of summer youth initiatives, and miscellaneous transitional business items.

Jaycees Issue Call for July Fourth Parade Contingents The Norwood Jaycees have officially opened registration for the town’s highly anticipated Fourth of July parade, issuing an active call for local marching units and creative floats. Interested neighborhood organizations, business sponsors, and civic groups are directed to submit their entry proposals in writing to the Jaycees at P.O. Box 805, Norwood.

The holiday parade route is scheduled to step off precisely at 6:00 p.m. from the Junior High School South campus. The procession will travel directly down Washington Street and Nahatan Street, ultimately concluding its march near the municipal police and fire station.

Lions Club Prepares for Fifth Annual Pancake Breakfast Co-chairmen Richard Gaviani and Frank Pepicelli have been appointed to head the planning committee for the Norwood Lions Club fifth annual pancake breakfast, which is locked in for this coming Sunday. Assisting the co-chairmen in coordinating the massive culinary event are local committee members Sam Colamaria, Bob Hansen, Dr. Tom Couch, Dom Jemella, Mike Sansone, and Ernie Vitagliano.

The breakfast buffet will run from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. inside the former Aaron Guild school building, located directly across the street from Norwood Hospital. Entry tickets have been set at $1.50 for general admission, with a discounted $1.00 tier available for senior citizens and children.

Business & Commerce

Hospital Physicians Launch $500,000 Expansion Drive Medical staff members of Norwood Hospital gathered for a ceremonial banquet at the Factory Mutual Conference Center to signal the formal launch of a historic intra-institutional fundraising appeal. The hospital’s active physicians have collectively pledged to raise $500,000 from within their own ranks to serve as their direct contribution toward the facility’s broader $5 million expansion and renewal program.

The hospital trustees and the directors of the Norwood Hospital Intercommunity Foundation—the facility’s official fundraising arm—disclosed that they have already successfully brought in more than half of their parallel $500,000 institutional goal. The overarching capital campaign was initialized in April with a foundational $300,000 gift from the hospital’s auxiliary force, supplemented by an overwhelming show of support from general hospital employees, eighty percent of whom combined to donate $215,000, handily eclipsing their initial $175,000 employee target.

The specialized physicians’ campaign is being directed by Dr. Martin L. Bradford, the hospital’s former chief of surgical services and a veteran staff member of more than thirty years. Assisting him in managing the outreach program are Drs. Barbara T. Ganem, James F. Kennedy, and John J. McDonald, with the medical staff aiming to hit their total financial marker by mid-summer.

Schools & Education

Four Hundred Ninety-Four Graduate in Perfect Murray Field Ceremonies

An idyllic, cloudless June afternoon set the stage yesterday at Murray Field as Norwood High School conferred diplomas upon 494 graduating seniors before a capacity crowd of over 2,000 relatives and friends. Led by Class President Paulette Alty, the Class of 1981 enthusiastically took their positions for the commencement exercises. In his opening invocation, Rabbi Mosche Birnbaum implored the graduates to remember that while the ceremony marked the definite conclusion of their high school tenures, every ending serves fundamentally as the genesis of a new path.

Senior Scholar Linda Sheehan delivered the keynote address as the principal speaker for the class, confronting popular characterizations of her peers. “Her classmates have been characterized as part of the ‘me’ generation because of apathy,” Sheehan noted, urging the graduates to deeply examine their lives and formulate deliberate paths. She emphasized that meaningful goals must transcend material wealth, focusing instead on “those things that are more permanent and personally satisfying.” Warning that modern society can manifest as a crushing force, she stressed that each student would require acute self-awareness to set their courses and inner strength to realize them, asking her classmates to remain steadfastly “prepared to voice discontent with the wrongs of the world.”

Sheehan outlined a philosophical framework for true social commitment, describing its three distinct evolutionary stages:

The first is ‘fun,’ when one enjoys one’s cause and working for it. The second stage is intolerance, when one has contempt for those who don’t share one’s opinions. The third stage is the realization that one can change only a small part of what is wrong with the world.

She noted that those rare individuals who persist in their work past that daunting third tier are the world’s true “saints.” Following her remarks, Alty stepped back to the podium to present the traditional class gift to William Callahan, president of the incoming Class of 1982. Deviating from non-monetary tokens, the graduates elected to award six $100 scholarships to the rising senior class. Callahan graciously accepted, likening the scholarship gift to “the passing of the baton from one class to another,” while praising the substantive contributions of the departing class.

The formal presentation of medals, academic prizes, and specialized scholarships was conducted by Superintendent of Schools Dr. Louis J. Tarsis, followed by the distribution of diplomas by School Committee Chairman Dr. William Pudsey. The individual scholarship and medal roll included:

• The Robert E. Adelson Scholarship: Linda M. Sheehan
• The John William Murphy Memorial Scholarship: Evon S. Fox
• The Kiwanis Club Scholarship: Jennifer Aspell
• National Honor Society Scholarships: Melissa C. Josephson and Glen Cammarano
• The Charles A. Hayden Latin Scholarship: Deborah J. Ahern
• The Berwick English Prize: Linda M. Sheehan
• The McCormack and Nicholson Award in English: Carla A. Hines and Evan S. Fox
• The Norwood Mothers’ Club Home Economics Award: Dianne V. Rogodzinski
• The Norwood Women’s Community Committee Foreign Language Awards: Linda M. Sheehan, William E. Dailey, and Evan S. Fox
• The United States History Award: Joseph F. Ailinger
• The Norwood Teachers’ Association Scholarship: JoAnne Ratto
• American Legion Post 70 Scholarship: Melissa C. Josephson
• The Andrew B. Boch Scholarship: Denise M. Herlihy
• The Anthony B. Sansone Scholarship: Jeanette M. McCauley
• The Paul Sundgren Scholarship: Anthony P. Antonitis
• The Norwood Physicians Trust Scholarships: Deborah J. Ahern and Patricia Minkevitch
• Parents Music Association Scholarships: Jeffrey R. Grosser, Mark A. Cohen, Judith M. Chesebrough, Linda M. Sheehan, Joseph P. Perednia, Leesa M. McNamara, Joseph F. Ailinger, Evon S. Fox, Marjorie A. Zyrek, Kevin Sullivan, Catherine A. Savage, Carol M. McKinnon, and Maureen E. Crawford
• The Norwood Women’s Community Committee Scholarship: William P. Shillue
• The Morrill Insurance Scholarship: Marybeth Folon
• Joseph Wall Memorial Scholarships: Brian S. Mahan and Paulette Alty
• The Carl A. Johnson Scholarship: John J. McCusker and Susan A. Daniel
• The Francis X. Sheehan, Jr. Scholarship: Sean R. Healy
• The Chamber of Commerce Scholarship: Richard T. Joseph
• The Kenneth Nolet Scholarship: Susan E. Burke
• The Norwood Women’s Club Scholarship: Josephine D. De Luca
• The Norwood High School Student Council Scholarship: Daniel J. Mahoney
• The Elizabeth Hackman Memorial Scholarship: Thomas Mackie
• The Michael Kaplan Memorial Scholarship: Automated Record / Pauline A. Kelly
• The Norwood Mothers’ Club Olive Eliot Nursing Scholarship: Elizabeth J. Sullivan
• The Norwood Mothers’ Club Anniversary Scholarship: Sheila Flaherty
• The Junior High School North PTA Scholarship: Michelle Kennedy
• The Frank L. Walsh Memorial Scholarship: Carol F. Barton
• The Lucille Riemer Memorial Scholarship: Donna T. Kotak
• The Women’s Community Committee Art Scholarship: Diane E. Kenny
• The Fraternal Order of Eagles, Ladies Auxiliary 1822 Scholarship: Eliot A. Cowan
• High School Scholarships: Kathleen A. Duffy, Elizabeth A. deWysocki, Susan B. Fanning, Karen M. Gately, Carla A. Hines, and Thomas V. Hoffman
• Norwood Elks Scholarship: Allyson M. Burt
• Italian Social Club Scholarship: Nancy J. Frongioso
• Junior High South PTA Scholarship: Paul M. Pazniokas and Betsy A. Woodard

The Class of 1981 leaves behind the familiar confines of Murray Field just as the physical fragments of the old Civic Center are cleared away, marking a definitive boundary line between the mid-century town landscape and the expanding municipal needs of a modern Norwood.

Public Summer School Registration Officially Opens

The administration of the Norwood Public Summer School has announced that formal enrollment for its upcoming secondary division will take place between 3:00 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. daily, starting today and extending through Wednesday. Registration sessions will be centered entirely at the Junior High School South campus, which will also host all seasonal classes beginning July 6.

The program requires a base $5 registration fee, with enrollment pricing set at $10 for specialized enrichment courses and $20 per class for remedial makeup tracks. Non-Norwood residents will be subject to a flat $10 surcharge per course. The summer curriculum is divided between remedial makeup credits—offered in English, mathematics, science, social studies, and foreign languages—and hands-on enrichment tracks covering art, clothing design, typing, and woodworking. The art and woodworking workshops carry an added $5 materials fee. Additionally, an intensive Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) preparation review course has been added to the seasonal slate. Comprehensive information brochures are currently available at the front offices of Norwood High School and both local junior high facilities.

High Cost Appears to Quash High School Night Football Proposals

A bold proposal to introduce regular Friday night football games under permanent lights at Norwood High School has run aground due to a steep $25,000 estimated relocation cost. Athletic Director Arthur Gulla vocally championed the plan before the school committee on Thursday night, predicting that the increased ticket revenue generated by popular evening match-ups would entirely offset athletic department budgets and repay the town’s initial investment within a few seasons. The plan hinged on transferring the existing outdoor illumination stanchions from the Norwood Civic Recreation Center field—which was recently purchased by Norwood Hospital—directly across town to the high school’s Murray Field. Under the terms of the property sale, the hospital authorized the town to salvage and remove any above-ground Civic Center property before a hard June 30 demolition deadline. “By June 30, those lights are gone,” Gulla warned the committee. “They’re cutting those poles down and that’s it.”

Despite the urgency, the school committee expressed widespread hesitation over the funding logistics. While the school system would not face usage fees for the structural light poles themselves, Town Hall departments refuse to dismantle and transport the heavy equipment for free. School Superintendent Louis J. Taris revealed that the municipal electric light department estimated the extraction and hauling costs alone at $4,720, with general contractors estimating an additional $15,000 to $20,000 to safely set the eight stanchions and wire the system at the high school gridiron. Currently, the Mustangs are limited to a single night game per season using costly rented portable lights.

Committee member Joseph M. Pentowski emerged as the sole vocal advocate for finding immediate funds, sharply criticizing the interdepartmental friction. “There’s a lack of cooperation between a couple of departments and it’s getting sickening,” Pentowski stated. However, committee member Margery H. McKenna countered his argument, reminding the room that the school department had previously shown a similar lack of flexibility regarding fees charged to other town groups for utilizing school property. McKenna also noted that the old Civic Center poles appeared significantly dated. School Committee Chairman Dr. William F. Pudsey flatly labeled the relocation plan “ludicrous” given the town’s far more pressing structural deficits, pointing specifically to required renovation work within the high school building itself. Pudsey additionally rejected a compromise measure to put the stanchions in storage for a few years until municipal finances stabilize, though he agreed to contact Town Hall one final time to explore alternative options.

Norwood Heritage Notes

Institutional Continuity and the Passing of the Baton

The early June news cycle underscores the deep-seated institutional presence of Norwood Hospital, which appears concurrently across multiple facets of town life this week—first as a central benefactor receiving safety equipment from the Women’s Community Committee, next as a major commercial engine launching a $500,000 internal expansion drive, and finally as the property catalyst behind the high school’s night football illumination debate following its recent real estate acquisition of the old Civic Center grounds. Similarly, the town’s public spaces demonstrate clear generational continuity; as Superintendent Louis J. Taris and Chairman Dr. William Pudsey guide the grand commencement rituals for nearly five hundred graduating seniors at Murray Field, the physical infrastructure of Junior High School South simultaneously readies itself to pivot from hosting the holiday starting blocks for the Jaycees’ annual parade to acting as the central academic hub for the town’s regional summer school program.

Around Town: Then & There

• Murray Field (Norwood High School Grounds)
  • Then: The high school athletic field served as the sprawling, cloudless setting where 494 graduating seniors received their diplomas before a capacity crowd of over 2,000 onlookers. It also stood at the center of a fierce municipal debate regarding whether it should receive the salvaged light poles from the old Civic Center.
  • Now: While the high school grounds have since evolved, Murray Field continues to serve as an integral part of Norwood High School’s outdoor athletic and community facilities.
• 96 Bruce Road
  • Then: This private residential address served as the family home of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Lind Sr. and their fifteen-year-old son, Richard Lind Jr., who participated in the town’s Student Government Day exercises.
  • Now: The 1950s-era property remains a well-maintained, private single-family residence nestled within a quiet residential neighborhood close to the high school.
• Junior High School South
  • Then: This school campus, located on Washington Street, functioned as both the starting assembly point for the Jaycees’ annual Fourth of July parade and the weekday registration and classroom hub for the Norwood Public Summer School program.
  • Now: The site was renamed the Dr. Philip O. Coakley Middle School in 2004. Following a successful community-driven effort, a brand-new, state-of-the-art $100 million four-story facility officially opened its doors on the grounds in August 2025 to serve grades 5–8.
• Honolulu Restaurant (Route 1)
  • Then: This lively commercial landmark along the town’s main highway corridor hosted the weekly gathering of the Kiwanis Club for their featured “Women in Kiwanis” luncheon and board meeting.
  • Now: This location closed its doors permanently prior to 2007, leaving behind memories of a vibrant local gathering space and classic tiki mugs.
• Former Aaron Guild School Building
  • Then: Situated directly across the street from Norwood Hospital, this decommissioned school facility operated as a busy community event space where the Lions Club hosted its fifth annual charity pancake breakfast.
  • Now: Following a landmark town meeting vote in the summer of 1980, the site was officially repurposed to become the permanent new home of the Norwood Civic Center on Washington Street. When the Norwood Armory became available, this plan was scrapped, the property was sold and became the Guild Medical Building.
• Norwood Hospital
  • Then: The central medical campus on Washington Street acted as a major civic and commercial engine, receiving a $3,000 infant car seat grant from the Women’s Community Committee while its active medical staff launched a massive $500,000 internal expansion campaign.
  • Now: Norwood Hospital has seen major structural transitions and redevelopment initiatives following unprecedented flooding events in 2020. The exterior of the new Norwood Hospital has been completed, and today it sits awaiting an owner to finish it.
• Factory Mutual Conference Center
  • Then: This local corporate conference and dining venue hosted the ceremonial banquet where Norwood Hospital’s physicians officially gathered to pledge their financial support for the facility’s renewal program.
  • Now: The property is known today as the Four Points by Sheraton Norwood Hotel & Conference Center, managed under Hobbs Brook Real Estate (the real estate division of FM). It serves as a premier regional corporate and social event venue, housing the Tiffany Ballroom and One Bistro.
• Norwood Civic Recreation Center Field (Old Civic Center Grounds)
  • Then: This municipal athletic field faced an impending June 30 demolition deadline after being purchased by Norwood Hospital, sparking an urgent debate over whether the town could afford the $25,000 cost to salvage and relocate its outdoor stadium light stanchions.
  • Now: Following its acquisition by the neighboring hospital, the old grounds were absorbed into the hospital’s expanding footprint.

NOW & THEN

Prices & Economy

• Then: High school summer school tuition is set at $10 for enrichment tracks and $20 for remedial makeup courses, with a base registration fee of $5. Lions Club pancake breakfast admission is priced at $1.50 for adults and $1.00 for seniors and children.
• Now: Modern regional summer school coursework typically commands hundreds of dollars per credit unit, while community charity breakfast tickets regularly range between $10 and $15 to cover contemporary food service inflation.

Places & Landmarks

• Then: The Norwood Civic Recreation Center’s outdoor athletic field lights stand intact, awaiting imminent pole extraction following the hospital’s property acquisition. The former Aaron Guild school building operates as an active off-campus community meeting site across from the hospital.
• Now: The historical landscape around the Washington Street hospital corridor has undergone deep structural re-development, with older municipal structures and open fields long since absorbed into expanded modern medical office complexes, parking decks, or updated civic parks.

Civic Life & Government

• Then: State tax legislation requires a formal push to raise maximum elderly gross income eligibility limits up to $8,000 for single seniors to adjust for late-1970s stagflation. Local high school sophomores step directly into town offices for an immersive “Student Government Day.”
• Now: Contemporary senior tax exemptions are tied directly to circuit-breaker metrics indexed automatically to shifting inflation values, while modern student civic engagement loops predominantly through digital policy simulations and specialized high school civics pathways.

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