With huge thanks to Carol Wilander Chaney ’65… we have an old issue of Granite Chips. I can’t determine the exact date… it’s a June issue, possibly 1941. The original is being scanned and will uploaded to this site soon after which the original will be sent to the Chester Historical Society. In the meantime… one of the features back then was an Alumni Section providing news about past graduates. Here’s what some members of the class of 1915 were doing:
Clara Terry Besancon, after graduating from Westfield Normal School in 1917, taught school in Middlefield. In 1918 she came to Chester to teach fifth grade. Later she became principal of the grammar school, a position she holds now. In 1919 she married Peter Besancon.
Dorothy Keefe McGraw graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1920 and the following two years taught in Platsburg, NY. In 1922 she married Hiram Ward McGraw. After his death, Mrs. McGraw attended the Cortland New York State Normal School and graduated in 1933. She returned to Chester, taught mathematics and science in the seventh and eight grades for a short while and recently accepted a position in the Chester Post Office. She and her two sons, Richard and Frederick, live on Huntington Street.
Donald Haley works at the Albert Steiger Company, Springfield, as a window decorator. He is married and has one child, Robert. He and his family now reside in Chicopee Falls.
Thomas F. Haley, after leaving high school, worked as a clerk in a grocery store. Later in worked in the Boston and Albany Freight Office in Chester and he is now employed in the Cortland Office as an accountant. He and his family live on Middlefield Street.
Cecilia Ledwell Ripley worked at the New England Telephone Company in Chester and in Pittsfield. Later she accepted a position as manager in the Telephone Exchange in Blandford and remained there for twenty-one years. She is now a dietitian at the Westfield State Sanitorium.
Avelina Whitcher Cornoni took a stenographic course at Springfield Business College. She has worked at Whitcher’s Garage and the BLue Ribbon Garage. She is an active worker in the Alumni Association. She has three daughters Anita, Rivera, and Edna.
Geneva Burleigh Shafer graduated from Westfield Normal School in 1917. She has taught several years in the third and fourth grades in Chester. In 1923 she married Seigel Shafer. They one daughter, Verna, and reside on Middlefield Street.
Editor Note: Isn’t good to know these Chester folks went to Normal School? I’ll be posting some more as time permits…
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