75 years ago
September 3, 1943
No longer will the World publish the interesting letters of Technical Sergeant Donald Carpenter, top turret gunner in an army bomber. For death reached out and claimed him August 1, in North Africa.
Carpenter would have celebrated his 23rd birthday, August 30. He graduated from Hoquiam High School, worked at the Harbor Plywood plant and also spent some time on tugboats on the Columbia river prior to entering the army air corps.
His many letters from North Africa were uniformly cheerful and witty. One of his recent letters told how he was going to “blitz” his parent’s refrigerator when he first arrived home.
50 years ago
September 3, 1968
Standing on a painter’s scaffold in the new cafeteria, Principal Donald Spencer, presided over the first assembly in the new Hoquiam High School. “This is a real thrill for all of us,” he told the students, “and we’ve got to work hard to preserve our school spirit. We’ve got to cooperate and work as a team.”
School Board Chairman Robert Aiken also addressed the student body. “This beautiful new school is the culmination of a lot of hard work. By the time we get all the furniture and equipment in here this is going to be a $4 million school.”
25 years ago
September 3, 1993
Anglers will have the rest of September to try to hook salmon off Westport because catches have been down for the second straight year.
According to the state Department of Fisheries, 5,153 chinook and just 36,957 coho salmon were caught as of Aug. 29. The coho catch is less than half the 77,100 quota set for the season.
“We’re seeing the catch per angler is down from what we would have expected,” said Department of Fisheries biologist Doug Milward. He blames warm water conditions known as El Nino for low overall catch this year and last.
Mark Cedergreen, president of the Westport Charter Association, said the low catches have forced the Westport fleet to roam farther north and west to find the concentration of fish.
Compiled from the archives of The Daily World by Karen Barkstrom
