Before they were famous: 70 notable people in Massachusetts high school yearbooks

The seniors in a century-old yearbook are mostly forgotten, but a few were not. We matched yearbook portraits to Wikipedia and Wikidata by hand, using what the book printed (a birth date, a team, a school) as evidence. 70 people who went on to Wikipedia pages are in Massachusetts high school yearbooks on this site, and 41 more in college and conservatory books. Newton High School's classes of 1910–28 hold 19, Boston Latin 11, Cambridge High and Latin 7, Medford 5.

70notable people in high school yearbooks
19at Newton High, 1910–28
11at Boston Latin, 1926–45
26athletes and coaches, the largest group

Yearbook portraits of twelve people who became notable, from Cambridge, Newton and Somerville yearbooks 1914 to 1929 — Seniors in yearbooks published 1930 or earlier (public domain). Left to right, top row: Leroy Anderson, May Sarton, D. D. Kosambi, Mary Switzer, Rosemary Park, Danny MacFayden.

What they became

Bar chart of the fields of notable people found in high school yearbooks — Field from Wikidata’s one-line description.

Athletes and coaches are the largest group (26), then scientists, physicians and scholars (13), politicians, judges and diplomats (10) and writers and journalists (8). Among the others are the composer Leroy Anderson, the poet May Sarton and the mathematician D. D. Kosambi, all in the Cambridge High and Latin books of 1923–29.

By town

Cambridge: 7

Cambridge High and Latin School

Joe Kozlowsky (1919, American football player (1901-1970))
Frank McCrehan (1921, American baseball player and coach)
D. D. Kosambi (1923, Indian mathematician, statistician and historian)
Bradford Cannon (1924, United States Army officer (1907-2005))
Leroy Anderson (1925, Composer of “Sleigh Ride”, “The Typewriter” and “Blue Tango”)
Joseph DeGuglielmo (1925, American mayor (1908-1983))
May Sarton (1929, Poet, novelist and memoirist)

Newton: 19

Newton High School

S. Foster Damon (1910, American writer (1893-1971))
Paul Smart (1910, American sailor (1892–1979))
Leslie Bancroft (1912, American tennis player)
Robert E. Gross (1914, American businessman (1897–1961))
William Lloyd Prosser (1914, American legal scholar (1898–1972))
Willard Rice (1914, American ice hockey player (1895-1967))
David Endicott Putnam (1916, US World War I flying ace)
Joseph Stubbs (1916, American ice hockey player and coach)
Mary E. Switzer (1917, American civil servant (1900-1971))
Hank Garrity (1918, American football player and coach, basketball coach, baseball player and…)
Robert H. Hopkins (1918, American attorney and rower)
Francis H. Russell (1922, American diplomat (1904–1989))
Dwight Shepler (1923, American artist (1905-1974))
Eleanor M. Hosley (1923, American social worker)
Howard J. Whitmore Jr. (1924, American politician (1905–1998))
Rosemary Park (1924, American Germanist, Vice-Chancellor of UCLA)
Mary Bowman (1925, American economist)
Malcolm A. MacIntyre (1925, lawyer and lacrosse player (1908-1992))
Francis Spain (1928, American ice hockey player (1909–1977))

Boston: 11

Boston Latin School

Ralph B. Rogers (1926, American businessman (1909-1997))
Will Cloney (1929, American athletics administrator)
George Mostow (1940, American mathematician (1923–2017))
Daniel Gorenstein (1940, American mathematician (1923–1992))
Albert J. Kelley (1942, American guidance systems engineer)
Thomas H. O'Connor (1942, American historian)
John E. Brooks (1942, American Roman Catholic priest, academic and educator)
Martin Dain (1943, American photographer)
Aaron Feuerstein (1943, American businessman (1925–2021))
Clifton R. Wharton Jr. (1943, United States Deputy Secretary of State)
Bob Woolf (1945, American sports agent)

Medford: 5

Medford High School

George Chalmers (1927, American football player)
Dick Cochran (1928, American basketball player and coach (1907–1971))
Arthur Cochran (1928, American basketball player and coach (1910–1978))
William L. Uanna (1929, United States security expert)
Alex Nahigian (1936, American football and baseball player and coach (1919-2001))

Somerville: 4

Somerville High School

Maurice Roberts (1922, American ice hockey player)
Howard Petrie (1924, Actor)
Danny MacFayden (1925, American baseball player)
Al Blanche (1928, Major League Baseball outfielder (1909–1997))

New Bedford: 4

New Bedford High School

Clinton E. Knox (1926, American diplomat)
Leo Goldberg (1930, American astronomer)
Charles Reis Felix (1941, American writer (1923-2017))
Samuel Genensky (1945, American computer scientist (1927-2009))

The full list, with the evidence for each match, is on Before they were famous.

How we counted

data/notable.json holds 173 people matched by hand to Wikidata, each with printed evidence (for example, a birth date printed in the yearbook that matches Wikidata exactly). We keep those whose record has a live page and comes from a school, college or class yearbook, and leave out soldiers’ rolls, biography volumes and directories (113 records, 111 distinct people; 70 from high school yearbooks).

Field is the first matching keyword in Wikidata’s one-line description. A person in two yearbooks counts once. A match is a judgement: if you know of a mistaken one, write to hello@theclassalbum.com and we will remove it.

The portrait sheet uses only yearbooks published in 1930 or earlier. The script is work/stories/s08_famous.py.

The scans belong to the libraries that digitised them; each person page links back to its scan. Corrections and removal requests: hello@theclassalbum.com or /rights.

Use these charts

Reporters, librarians, teachers and society newsletters are welcome to use the charts on this page with a link back. Copy the snippet under the chart you want; it carries the credit. Every number can be recomputed from the archive’s data (see “How we counted”), and a reporter who wants a different cut, such as one school or one class year, can ask at hello@theclassalbum.com.

portraits-1930-and-earlier.png

<a href="https://theclassalbum.com/stories/before-they-were-famous-notable-people-in-school-yearbooks/"><img src="https://theclassalbum.com/stories/before-they-were-famous-notable-people-in-school-yearbooks/portraits-1930-and-earlier.png" alt="Twelve notable people as high school seniors" width="1200" height="675" style="max-width:100%;height:auto"></a>
<p style="font-size:.85em">Chart: The Class Album (theclassalbum.com), from yearbooks digitised by public libraries and posted on the Internet Archive. <a href="https://theclassalbum.com/stories/before-they-were-famous-notable-people-in-school-yearbooks/">Before they were famous: 70 notable people in Massachusetts high school yearbooks</a></p>

by-field.png

<a href="https://theclassalbum.com/stories/before-they-were-famous-notable-people-in-school-yearbooks/"><img src="https://theclassalbum.com/stories/before-they-were-famous-notable-people-in-school-yearbooks/by-field.png" alt="What the seniors became" width="1200" height="675" style="max-width:100%;height:auto"></a>
<p style="font-size:.85em">Chart: The Class Album (theclassalbum.com), from yearbooks digitised by public libraries and posted on the Internet Archive. <a href="https://theclassalbum.com/stories/before-they-were-famous-notable-people-in-school-yearbooks/">Before they were famous: 70 notable people in Massachusetts high school yearbooks</a></p>

by-town.png

<a href="https://theclassalbum.com/stories/before-they-were-famous-notable-people-in-school-yearbooks/"><img src="https://theclassalbum.com/stories/before-they-were-famous-notable-people-in-school-yearbooks/by-town.png" alt="Where they went to school" width="1200" height="675" style="max-width:100%;height:auto"></a>
<p style="font-size:.85em">Chart: The Class Album (theclassalbum.com), from yearbooks digitised by public libraries and posted on the Internet Archive. <a href="https://theclassalbum.com/stories/before-they-were-famous-notable-people-in-school-yearbooks/">Before they were famous: 70 notable people in Massachusetts high school yearbooks</a></p>