Melrose High School

Ralph Bragdon Jr “Lightnin'”

Ralph Bragdon Jr (“Lightnin'”) appears in the 1932 yearbook of Melrose High School in Melrose, MA. This page shows the portrait as printed, with classmates, family and what the book says.

Class of 1932

195 in the class of 1932 · 6 more named Bragdon

Full name: Ralph Bragdon Jr
Known as: Lightnin'
School: Melrose High School
Graduated: Class of 1932
Came from: Washington School
Headed for: Rollins College
Ambition: “To be one of the country’s finest photographers”
Pastime: “Photography”

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Same surname 4
Classmates 194
Same schools 47

In context

Of the 195 names from the Melrose High School class of 1932 that have pages here, Ralph is 20th in surname order. On the scan, the entry sits on page 23, right at the start of the stretch from page 15 to page 99 where this site found the book's portraits. The first name Ralph appears 13 times in the 8 Melrose High School classes read for this site (1925 to 1939). Among the 70 people in the class who printed a plan, 26 (37%) named a college or university, as Ralph did (“Rollins College”). Count the first names and the class of 1932 gives Eleanor (9), Barbara (6) and Dorothy (6), where the class of 1934 gives Henry (5) and Robert (5).

On the same scan page	James W. Bradbury
Same earlier school	Washington School: 45 other classmates
Same kind of plan	college or university: 26 of 70 classmates with a plan (37%)

What Ralph did at school

Poetry Club (2), (3), (4)
Art League (4)

What the yearbook said

Ralph entered our portals from the Washington School. He is a real sport, well liked, and respected. Ralph is interested in photography and hopes to be one of the country’s finest. He has a wonderful business head, packed full of ideas. The “Old Maestro” is quite a woman hater, but he plans to enter Rollins College (co-ed of course) next year, which will be soon enough to change all this. Ralph will not need luck. His slow but steady, efficient pace will sooner or later take him to the top.

The class of 1932

All 195 in this class →

Others named Bragdon

Same surname in Massachusetts. They may be relatives; the books do not say.

Also came from Washington School

Also headed for Rollins College

Look for Ralph Bragdon Jr in other records

FamilySearch census, birth, marriage and death records (free account)
Internet Archive other yearbooks, city directories and town reports that mention the name
Chronicling America digitized newspapers at the Library of Congress

Do you know Ralph?

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Source

Melrose High School yearbook, 1932, page 23. View the original scan at the Internet Archive (item log1932melr).

Published 1932. Scan courtesy of Digital Commonwealth libraries via the Internet Archive.

How this page was made: the name, portrait and printed details were read from the scan by software and checked against the page; a few in every hundred details are still wrong. How it works · Report an error · Standards