2012: GOODBYE TO A DEAR FRIEND

I was sorry to learn of the passing of my friend and fellow alumnus from Hamilton High, Jack Lacy. Were it not for Jack and his partner, former Mayor Jack Rafferty, there would be no Hamilton Township Public Library Local History Collection, Lacy found a spot for me at the Hamilton Library and the rest is history. Local History was not a priority with the Director at the time, and it took incoming Director George Conwell to bring the project to fruition with a dedicated room for local history, a tabloid scanner, a tabloid printer, and a state of the art computer. It all began back in 1992 when I received a call from Jack Lacy. He said, "You start at the library on Monday, Tom." Jack Lacy answered my prayer and he will always be in mine. May God welcome you into his Heavenly Kingdom, Jack. You will be missed.

1986: MESSENGER PUBLISHER JACK LACY EULOGY TO LES ROBBINS

Mr. Robbins along with my friends Maury Perilli and Jack Rafferty were lynch pins in the remarkable evolution of Hamilton Township from a rural community to the burgeoning megalopolis we have become here in the first decade of the 21st century.

Steinert Spartans Celebrate their 50th.

In an effort to bring Steinert and Nottingham High School material as well as Hamilton West, I have found a source in the late, lamented Mercer Messenger. My friend Jack Lacy, my former boss, and Publisher of that great old community newspaper has brought me a large collection of papers from when he held forth as publisher. His papers, along with those in my collection, and those that remain in the Library files, will assure interesting future posts of all three high schools in Hamilton.

1987: THE RAFFERTY TEAM SWEEPS

They were in slower and seemingly more innocent years, the political climate in Hamilton was just as fierce as it is in this segment of the 1st century. Here's an interesting article on the 1987 election that swept the "Rafferty Gang" into office.

1978: JACK LACY: THE EARLY YEARS

HOW TIME FLIES! HOW TEMPUS FUGITS! DO YOU REALIZE IT HAS BEEN 29 YEARS (30 IN JUST A FEW WEEKS. LORD ABOVE, AM I GETTING ON IN YEARS. IT SEEMS LIKE ONLY YESTERDAY!