This is the second batch of those who contributed works to History as It Happens: Community Bloggers in Lowell, Mass. our forthcoming book of community writing by more than 40 contributors to this website over the past ten years.

History as It Happens will be released at a book launch event on Saturday, August 5, 2017, from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm at Lowell Telecommunications Corporation at 246 Market Street. Thereafter, the book will be available locally and online.

History as It Happens: Contributors part II

John Edward in on the faculties of Bentley University and UMass Lowell, where he teaches microeconomics and macroeconomics. A past guest columnist for The Sun newspaper, his essays on economics have been popular features on the richardhowe.com blog. John contributed two essays: Blue Does Not Equal Liberal which argues that Massachusetts is not as progressive as everyone believes; and Occupy Policy, an account of how income inequality grew in America, seen through the lens of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Fred Faust, president of the Edge Group real estate consulting firm, was an assistant to U.S. Senator Paul Tsongas and the first executive director of the Lowell Historic Preservation Commission, U.S. Dept. of the Interior. Fred contributed five articles that highlight people in Lowell who have taken the initiative to make Lowell a better community. The articles are Sovanna; Sisson and Slater: Mill City Grows; George Duncan: The Kid and the Kool-Aid; Local Heroes Made a Splash; and Dorcas Grigg-Saito: Lowell Key, High Success.

Thomas Fitzsimmons’s “Rainbow Poem” was first published as a broadside by Loom Press of Lowell in the 1980s. Born in Lowell, Tom is the author, editor, and translator of more than 60 books, including Becomes One, Iron Harp, and The Dream Machine. Tom’s Rainbow Poem is in the poetry section.

Robert Forrant is a professor of history at UMass Lowell. He has authored and co-authored numerous books, papers, and articles including The Big Move: Immigrant Voices from a Mill City, co-edited with Christoph Strobel. He was recently appointed University Professor, a distinguished honor. Bob contributed Lessons from Dad for Father’s Day in 2009; and Nobody Beats the Fizz, about the contributions of the University of Massachusetts Lowell to the state’s economy.

Kate Hanson Foster’s book of poems Mid Drift was a “Must Read” selection in the Massachusetts Book Awards for 2011. Her work has been published in California Quarterly, Poet Lore, and elsewhere. Kate’s poem “Letters” is in the poetry section.

Bob Hodge is a writer and local running legend in Massachusetts—honored in the Athletics Hall of Fame at Lowell High School and UMass Lowell. In 1982, he won the Beppu-Oita Marathon in Japan. He is the director of the Berlin Public Library in Mass. Bob contributed School Daze Lost in Time, an account of his experience at Lowell High in the 1970s.

Andrew Howe is a graduate student at Georgetown University who was the Lowell field organizer for Democrat Elizabeth Warren’s 2012 U.S. Senate campaign. Andrew wrote about Lafayette and the American Revolution and about the final Space Shuttle Mission in 2011.

Richard P. Howe, Jr., founder of richardhowe.com, is the author of Lowell: Images of Modern America and the Register of Deeds of the Middlesex North District in Mass. Many of his blog posts are contained in the book.