c 2010 Rotary Club of Newton Page 1

2009-2010ROTARY CLUB OF NEWTON719 WASHINGTON STREET BOX MS295

NEWTONVILLE, MASSACHUSETTS 02460

THE SERVICE GEARVolume LXXXVI No. 30 February 17, 2010

altham Rotary Club President GlennaGelineau called upon John Peacock to lead thePledge of Allegiance. Susanne Roberts ledeveryone in a chorus of God Bless America. Ourown Dennis Prefontaine offered an invocation,thankful for “food that rivals Brae Burn.”

We assume that it was in honor of ourvisiting contingent of Newton Rotarians that theWaltham club was treated this day to a dessert ofchocolate mousse, topped with whipped cream,and served in wine glasses. A nice touch!

PresidentMarie Presti

617-620-6948

President-ElectJeff Tucker

617-340-1263

Vice PresidentLaurisa Neuwirth

617-291-0572

Past PresidentMarc Epstein617-244-1212

TreasurerPeter Mahler

617-630-5289

Recording SecretaryJohn Hurney

617-332-7412

DirectorDick Bowen

617-969-9134

DirectorJeff Chin

617-965-1988

Sergeant-at-ArmsBill Garr

617-969-5906 x116

Newsletter EditorScott Lewis

617-293-6371

DirectorJustin Sallaway617-244-0065

DirectorTony Bibbo

781-237-1144

MEETS TUESDAYS; 12:15 P.M. BRAE BURN COUNTRY CLUB, 326 FULLER STREET, NEWTON, MA

District No. 7910Club No. 6580

CONTENTS PageMEETING NOTES 1ANNOUNCEMENTS 2THIS WEEK’S HUMOR 2PROGRAM 3HAPPY DOLLARS 4RAFFLE 5 Dick Bowen celebrates mousse season at the Chateau!

MEETING GREETERS NEXT MEETING:February 24: Dick Bowen & Ed Casavant

Back at Brae Burn February 24th!

Read All About It!

INCREDIBLE! DESSERT SERVED IN WALTHAM!!!

W

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Stevie Wonder and Jack Nicklausare in a bar. Nicklaus turns to Wonder andsays, “How is the singing career going?”

Stevie Wonder says, “Not bad, the latestalbum has gone Top 10, so all in all I think itis pretty good. By the way, how is the golf?”

Nicklaus replies: “Not too bad, I am notwinning as much as I used to, but I’m stillmaking money. I have some problems withmy swing, but I think I’m working it out.”

“I always find that when my swing goeswrong I need to stop playing for a while andthink about it, then the next time I play itseems to be all right,” says Stevie.

“You play golf!?” asks Jack. Steviesays, “Yes, I have been playing for years.”

“But I thought you were blind; how canyou play golf if you are blind?” Jack asks.

“I get my caddie to stand in the middleof the fairway and he calls to me. I listen forthe sound of his voice and play the balltowards him, then when I get to where theball lands the caddie moves to the green orfurther down the fairway and again I play theball towards his voice,” explains Stevie.

“But how do you putt?” Nicklauswondered.

“Well,” says Stevie, “I get my caddie tolean down in front of the hole and call to mewith his head on the ground and I just playthe ball to the sound of his voice.”

Nicklaus says, “What’s your handicap?”“Well, I play off scratch,” Stevie assures

Jack. Nicklaus is incredulous and says toStevie, “We must play a game sometime.”

Wonder replies, “Well, people don’ttake me seriously, so I only play for money,and I never play for less than $100,000 ahole.” Nicklaus thinks it over and says, “OK,I’m up for that. When would you like toplay?”

“I don’t care - any night next week isOK with me.”

ANNOUNCEMENTS

District 7910 PR Dinner and awards nightis set for February 26th. Several Newton Clubmembers will be attending.

Your ad could be here!

Business card size ads cost only $100/year for Rotarymembers, $125 for non-members. The distribution listof people who see our club news grows every week.

Shouldn’t they see you, and your support of our club’sgood works?

Italian NightAttention Club Members! The Italian

Night event committee needs to know howmany people will actually attend a dinnerevent tentatively set for the evening ofTuesday, March 9th (in lieu of that week’sregular meeting).

The tentative plans have changed! Theconcept now is to have dinner at the famousVecchia Roma Restaurante at 398Watertown St. in Nonantum. Spouses/Gueststo cost $10 per person - no charge for Clubmembers.

Please email Scott Lewis with yourRSVP, as soon as possible, indicating howmany will attend, including yourself, or ifyou will not make it at all.

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Waltham Mayor Jeanette A.McCarthy had lots of maps ofthe Fernald School property toexplain some of the issuesconcerning the future dipositionof the property, which is beingphased out as a State mentalhealth institution.

A brief history of the FernaldSchool site written by Marie E.Daly is attached to thisnewsletter for additionalinformation.

Speaker Program: Waltham Mayor Jeanette McCarthy

Mayor McCarthy’s topic was the ongoingprocess of figuring out the future of the FernaldSchool campus that stretches along Trapelo Roadin Waltham’s northern reaches.

Founded in 1848 by Samuel Gridley Howeas the “Massachusetts School for the Feeble-Minded,” the institution was moved to thepresent site by order of the State Legislature in1887. It grew in scope of services, land area, andresident population, to a peak of 2,600 residentsin the 1960’s.

Mayor McCarthy stated that about 100residents still live on the property, but many of

the buildings will need to be demolished if notrenovated for re-use, as the property passes frominstitutional to other uses. Ironically, the “newer”buildings will most likely face demolition, notthe better-built older edifices.

Future ownership and zoning of the site areboth open questions. The mayor is open to mostlyrecreational re-use, but clearly wants to see atleast some of the property added to the tax rollsas residential and business use.

Clearly, the City of Waltham will be wres-tling with this property’s issues for quite sometime to come.

c 2010 Rotary Club of Newton Page 4

SCOTT LEWIS HOME DESIGN

ADDITIONSRENOVATIONSNEW HOMESHISTORIC RESTORATION12 Bencliffe CircleAuburndale, MA 02466(617) 293-6371

PAULA KIRRANE

Uniquely Designed Cakes230 Adams StreetNewton, MA 02458Tel.: (617) 969-1830fax: (617) 969-5852

www.theicingonthecake.com

HAPPY DOLLARS

Newton club members who attended atWaltham this week included Tom Keery, PaulKerrissey, Scott Lewis, Peter Mahler, EdCasavant, Bob Staulo, Justin Sallaway, LaurenHyken, Peggy Lepore, Dick Bowen, and TonyBibbo.

Those happy enough to express their joyincluded Peter Mahler, happy to be hosted.Scott Lewis had compliments for the desserts.

Expatriot Tim Braceland was happy tosee Newton members visiting. His wifeConnie was happy to see us as well. She wasalso happy to eat dessert; for the success ofDeath by Chocolate; and for having spent twoweeks in the wilds of Tanzania and Dubai.

Tom Keery happily contemplates a dollop of whippedcream.

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UPCOMING...

February 24: Back to Brae Burn!

February 26: District PR Dinner

March 9: Tentatively: Italian Night atVecchia Roma Restaurante. RSVP’sneeded immediately for planningpurposes.

March 17: St. Patrick’s Day Luncheon atLasell Village

Our Waltham hosts conducted a 50/50 rafflewon by a recently inducted new Waltham mem-ber named Sean Mahoney.

Our own progressive raffle stands at ajackpot value of $648, with only 26 cards in thediminishing deck. So, you guessed it! We’replaying with half a deck this coming Wednesday.

Don’t miss your chance to win!

PAUL M. KERRISSEYAttorney at Law

277 Auburn StreetSuite BAuburndale, MA 02466Office: (617) 964-5800Fax: (617) 969-9850

RAFFLE

History of the Walter E. Fernald Development Center

By Marie E. Daly The Fernald Development Center, located at 200 Trapelo Road, is the oldest institution that serves people with developmental disabilities in the Western Hemisphere. Founded by Samuel Gridley Howe as the Massachusetts School for the Feeble-Minded in 1848, the school was originally located in South Boston. Howe was an abolitionist and reformer, who also founded the Perkins Institute for the Blind. His wife, Julia Ward Howe, wrote The Battle Hymn of the Republic. Howe and the second superintendent, Edward Jarvis, had a primarily moral / religious mission, i.e. to make clean, productive, responsible citizens of high-functioning disabled youths. The education included classroom training, manual training at shoe repair, broom making, rag rug making, weaving, knitting and sewing and housekeeping, music therapy, dancing and athletics. But by the 1870s under Jarvis, the school came under increasing pressure to accommodate adults with more chronic disabilities who required custodial care, and consequently the school needed more space. In response to this pressure, the legislature appropriated in 1887 $25,000 for the purchase of land in Waltham. The first purchase was the 18-acre Bird estate, located off Waverley Oaks Road, and in 1888, construction began for the school campus in Waltham. Before the school moved to Waltham, this was farm land belonging primarily to the Bird, Baldwin, Lawrence and Warren families. Although the school did grow a number of crops here, it was never intended as a hospital farm. Instead, another institution in Templeton was established to grow food. Nevertheless, aerial photos show that much of the western part of the campus was either wetlands or under cultivation. Indeed, there once was a cow barn here large enough for 50 head of cattle, and a horse barn. Land purchases continued into the twentieth century, so that the institution eventually encompassed 180+ acres of land between Trapelo Road and Waverley Oaks Road.

North Nurses’ Home ca 1905

From 1889, the institution grew in size from 142 residents, to 494 in 1911, to 1,330 in 1926, to 1,890 in 1945, to its peak of 2,600 residents in the 1960s. The third superintendent (1888 – 1924), Walter E. Fernald became an internationally renowned authority on mental retardation. Under his administration, the mission of the school changed to a more scientifically based pursuit. But

History of the Walter E. Fernald Development Center page 2

underlying the early 20th century growth of the institution was the pseudoscience, eugenics, a misapplication of Darwinian principles and genetics. Its politically conservative adherents claimed that people of color, immigrants, Jews, southern Europeans, developmentally disabled people and the rural poor were “polluting the gene pool of society.” With widespread implementation of IQ testing, children who tested below normal were labeled as retarded, and in some cases taken from their families and institutionalized. Walter E. Fernald was on the board of the Eugenics Society, and had initially advocated the forced sterilization of people with developmental disabilities. He later renounced this idea, and instead promoted strictly enforced segregation into state-run institutions. The field of eugenics was deservedly discredited after World War II, when the world made the appalling discovery of the concentration camps – the Nazi’s ultimate application of eugenic ideas. In America, the eugenics-inspired segregation of disabled people caused the rapid growth of institutions all over the country, including the Fernald. In addition, people who did not have developmental disabilities were virtually incarcerated at the Fernald and institutions like it. These included people who tested below average on IQ tests (termed “morons”), children from broken or disordered, poor families, and orphans in state foster care. Walter E. Fernald’s mission of scientific investigation and the inclusion of poor, delinquent, orphaned and epileptic people in the institution continued under the next superintendent, Dr. Ransom Greene. With the increased population, and subsequent decreased per-capita funding, the school needed the free manual labor of the non-disabled inmates to help run the institution. At one point, Dr. Greene stated that he needed a mix of 30% “morons” to keep the school operating. So there were powerful financial incentives to keep the non-disabled incarcerated. Furthermore the inadequate state funding resulted in lower staff-to-inmate ratios, and some overwhelmed staff resorting to abuse to manage their charges. Recent reports have highlighted the abusive care of the residents in the 1940s and 1950s. In addition to being incarcerated, abused, poorly educated and malnourished, many of the Fernald residents were unwitting participants in medical experiments, such as the “Science Club” children who were fed radioactive isotopes with their oatmeal. While the doses were probably too small to harm the children, they had not given their consent, and had been given disproportionately large rewards for their participation. Consequently, these experiments violated the Nuremberg Code, ethical principles for medical experimentation established after the Nazi Holocaust. But the reports of the conditions of the 1950s do not reflect the current care. In 1972, parents, guardians and advocates for the disabled sued the Commonwealth in federal court. The judge ordered increased state funding, and better treatment of the disabled. As a result of federal court order, many residents were placed in community residential facilities, and the care of the remaining residents was vastly improved. A sprawling, one-storey cottage complex was built to provide more intimate and home-like residences for those who remained. By 1979, the number of residents had decreased to 1,161. The Fernald Center now houses 248 [in 2005] residents, the majority of whom are profoundly disabled. Most of the nineteenth century buildings were designed by one architect, William G. Preston, who advocated a cottage concept laid out, not in a “checkerboard” fashion, but rather dispersed amid a largely preserved landscape of rolling hills. Preston designed many of the buildings in a Queen Anne style with Romanesque or Craftsman overtones. The buildings have fieldstone foundations, red brick construction, sandstone trim, corbelled cornices, overhanging slate roofs and decorative brickwork. In the 1930s, another architect, Clarence P. Hoyt designed buildings in the colonial revival style common to state institutions of that era. Since the 1950s, construction at the institution has

History of the Walter E. Fernald Development Center page 3

possessed no architectural design of merit and has greatly disturbed the landscape. But with its tree-lined parks and hilly landscape, the oldest part of the campus has the ambience of a New England village. Candace Jenkins, the state consultant who nominated the campus for the National Register of Historic Landmarks, said “The Walter E. Fernald State School possesses integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling and associations.”

Aerial View of Fernald Center in 1952

History of the Walter E. Fernald Development Center page 4

Sources

1. Samuel Gridley Howe, M. D., Class of 1821,” Brown University website, www.brown.edu/webmaster/about/history/howe.shtml.

2. Stan Griffin, Deaf Friends International, “Champion of the Unfortunate,” www.workersforjesus.com/dfi/854.htm. Biography of Samuel Gridley Howe.

3. Walter E. Fernald Historical Collection, Samuel Gridley Howe Library, www.brandeis.edu/lemberg/SGHL/Main.html

4. David Pfeiffer, “Samuel Gridley Howe and ‘Schools of the Feebleminded,” Ragged Edge Online, Jan./Feb. 2003, www.ragged-edge-mag.com/0103/0103ft2.html.

5. “State Hospitals of Massachusetts,” 1856.org, www.1856.org/mass.html. 6. “Parallels in Time: A History of Developmental Disabilities,” The Minnesota Governor’s Council

on Developmental Disabilities, www.mncdd.org/parallels/. 7. Candace Jenkins, Nomination for National Register of Historic Landmarks. Massachusetts

Historic Commission, 1992. A detailed description of the Fernald Center and its historic buildings. Available at the Waltham Public Library, Waltham Room.

8. “History of Massachusetts Institutions,” World Wide Web Virtual Library for Archaeology, http://archnet.asu.edu/archives/ccm/Mass/built/hs.htm.

9. “Consolidated Consent Decrees Summary,” The Arc of Massachusetts website, http://arcmass.org/consent.pdf. A summary of the 1993 federal court order regarding Massachusetts facilities for people with developmental disabilities.

10. Elof Axel Carlson, The Unfit: A History of a Bad Idea. New York: Cold Spring Harbor Press, 2001. 11. Michael D’Antonio, The State Boys Rebellion: A True Story. New York, Simon & Schuster, 2004.

About children who were wards of the state and incarcerated at the Fernald School from the 1940s to 1970.

12. Stephen Jay Gould, The Mismeasure of Man. New York: W. W. Norton, 1981, 2nd ed. 1996. Now a classic rebuttal in the debate of aptitude testing, race, innate intelligence and environmental influence. Available at the Waltham Public Library.

13. Margaret Quigley, “The Roots of the I. Q. Debate: Eugenics and Social Control,” The Public Eye Website of the Political Research Associates, www.publiceye.org/magazine/v09n1/eugenics.html. An online article about the political motivations of eugenics advocates.

14. Welling Savo, “The Master Race,” Boston Magazine, Dec. 2002, available on line at www.bostonmagazine.com/special1/eugenics_1202.shtml.

15. “Race and Membership in American History: The Eugenics Movement,” Facing History and Ourselves website, www.facing.org.