Lucius Beebe Memorial Library, Wakefield, Mass.

Title

WHS 25th anniversary reunion, June 25, 1955

Description

"Members of Wakefield high School, Class of 1930 attended their 25th anniversary reunion at the University Club in Boston. Among the class members at the head table was Dr. Elizabeth V. Upham (sixth from left), who later became a teacher, administrator and Dean of Girls at Wakefield High School. According to the Debater, the high school yearbook, Elizabeth was an assistant artists on the yearbook staff, a traffic officer, a library assistant, and the Corresponding Secretary of the Inter Nos Club, which was in its second year of existence in 1930. Although the yearbook noted that "Lib" planned to attend an art school or Jackson College, she went on to graduate from Tufts University in 1934 and received her Master's Degree in Education two years later. She started teaching at Wakefield High School in 1936, in a career that spanned more than 40 years. As Dean of Girls, Dr. Upham was the class adviser for the Inter Nos Club for several decades, as well as countless other activities. She went on to become a major benefactor of the Lucius Beebe Memorial Library, leaving a substantial portion of her estate in a trust 'to be used for the purchase of books and materials, particularly in history, literature, and the social sciences.' Among others at the reunion, at the table directly in front of Dr. Upham, were John and Giovaninna (Benedetto) Volpe. Jennie, as she was called, was a graduate of the Class of 1930. Both John and Jennie were raised in Wakefield, with John leaving home at an early age and graduating from Malden High School in the mid-1920s. Following her graduation, Jennie was a registered nurse at Winchester Hospital and at Bellevue Hospital in New York. The couple married in 1934. At the time of Jennie's class reunion, John was the Massachusetts Commissioner of Public Works. He went on to serve as the first administrator of the Federal Highway Administration in 1956 and as Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts from 1961 to 1963 and again from 1965 to 1969. He served as the US Secretary of Transportation from 1969 to 1973 and was appointed US Ambassador to Italy where he served from 1973 to 1977. Among the other class members who may have been at the reunion were Winnifred Ashenden, Sigmund Szydlowski and Constance Doyle."

Image from the Wakefield Municipal Gas and Light Department annual calendar, 2017

Photo courtesy of the Lucius Beebe Memorial Library

Contributor

Institution: Lucius Beebe Memorial Library

Wakefield Municipal Gas & Light Department (Wakefield, Mass.)

D'Onofrio, Jayne M.

Coverage

Massachusetts--Middlesex (county)--Wakefield

Date

06-25-1955

Format

image/jpeg

Publisher

Wakefield, Mass. : Wakefield Municipal Gas & Light Department

Subject

Class reunions

Wakefield High School (Wakefield, Mass.)

Type

still image

Photographs

Original Format

1 picture: b & w

Extent

31 x 15 cm.