Twenty years ago — 1999

Edwin W. Tarnowski has been named this year’s honorary chairman of Murray Hose Co. No. 4’s annual dance. Mr. Tarnowski has been a member of Hose 4 since 1948. He was a line officer of that group from 1950 to 1960, as well as a member of the Dunkirk Fire Police. A life member of the Southwestern, Western an New York State Firemen’s associations, he marched with the Murraymen Drum & Bugle Corps for 58 years.

Thirty years ago — 1989

Dr. Susan Schweik, a 1974 graduate of Fredonia High School and former 3-1-3 student at Fredonia State University College, will be one of four professors to receive the 1988 Distinguished Teaching Award at the University of California at Berkeley. The award, given annually by the Academic Senate Committee on Teaching since 1959, recognizes excellence in teaching on the Berkeley campus. Dr. Schwiek joined Berkeley’s Department of English in 1984.

Forty years ago — 1979

The gymnasium on the Center Street-Terrace Street sid of Fredonia’s Old Main building has been demolished as part of the renovation of that building into 91 units of federal rent-subsidized housing for the elderly to be known as One Temple Square. The gymnasium was all that remained of the original Fredonia Normal School, which was built in 1867 and mostly destroyed by a fire in 1900 that claimed several lives. The current structure was built in 1901 to replace the original school.

Fifty years ago — 1969

Leonard Palka Jr., son of Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Palka, 48 Benton St., Dunkirk has been selected Student of the Week. The Cardinal Mindszenty senior is a charter member of the St. Edmund Chapter of the National Honor Society. He is a Student Council representative, member of the CMHS band, promotion director for this year’s musical, “A Blaze of Glory,” and editor-in-chief of the school newspaper, The Meridian. Leonard plans to major in engineering at the University of Detroit.