The news came from Bob Dobias, “Quite a career!” he wrote, together with a link to an article about Garry Brown’s passing on Monday at age 90.It was quite a career indeed. The longtime Springfield sportswriter, columnist and editor hailed from an era.
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In April 1916, the front pages of America’s newspapers were dominated by headlines about the war on Europe’s western front, where the German and French armies were battling at Verdun, and by reports of German American opposition to President Wilson’s re-election campaign. Then, on Tuesday morning, the 25th, came news of the capture of a German ship that had tried to land arms on Ireland’s west coast, and the arrest of Sir Roger Casement, a retired diplomat. “Daring Invasion of Ireland by Germans Fails,” screamed the Charlotte Observer in North Carolina. Partisan passions about World War I were running high in the United States, and pro-British papers like The New York Times were quick to circulate the “official” announcement calling Casement “mentally unbalanced,” and the Irish news nothing more than a “madcap adventure.”
Sword stolen from statue of Revolutionary War hero in Westfield 40 years ago returned
Updated Jan 03, 2021;
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As college pranks go, it proved to be a weighty one, the fallout from which a now aging military veteran carried around with him for almost 40 years. Until now.
All that matters, explains Cindy P. Gaylord, is that a piece of Westfield’s history is back in the city’s possession and will be preserved for generations to come.
On Monday of this week, Gaylord, chair of the municipal Historical Commission, sat in the driveway at her home, masked and socially distanced from her visitor, to hear face-to-face from the man who brought Gen. William Shepard’s sword back to Westfield. More specifically, it is the century-old bronze, sculpted version of the famed general’s sword, which went missing four decades ago from a monument in downtown Westfield.