With women allowed, Retired Men's Club of Greendale to retire its longtime name

WORCESTER — The Retired Men’s Club of Greendale will officially scrap its men-only moniker after 71 years.

Wednesday, the group will become the Retired Friends of Greendale, a nod to its open membership. In September, the group began allowing women into its ranks, thus the name change.

A ceremony is planned to usher in the new name.

“We used to have over 2,000 members. And we’ve been down to 1,700,” President James F. Hester III said. “It’s tough to get guys to do things anymore, just like any club. So we figured if we opened it up to women."

Ties to Norton Co.

In 1952, a group of retirees from Norton Co. in Worcester decided they wanted to stay in touch after leaving the abrasives giant, so they started the Retired Men's Club of Greendale.

The club started with 66 charter members including its 27 founding members. The men-only group began meeting at the old Greendale YMCA, which was built on land donated by Norton Co. near Norton Beach on Indian Lake.

From bowling and golf leagues to the group's chorus, the club has been a hub of men's activities for decades.

As for allowing women into the club, Hester doesn’t think the forefathers would endorse the move.

“Even when our board of directors first talked about this, four out of the nine rejected it,” Hester said.

Some members wanted to stick with tradition.

"They said, ‘Hey, we’ve been doing this for 72 years and we haven’t had women in there and we’ve been functional. Why do we want to change?’” Hester said. “People don’t like change. It wasn’t so much we don’t like women. It was more or less change. We felt it was the right time.”

As it has for six decades, the club still meets nearly every Wednesday morning, when public schools are in session, at 9 a.m. in the Greendale YMCA.

“Before COVID, we used to have over 200 members show up at a meeting,” Hester said. “Now it’s 100, maybe 120. A lot of it depends on who we have for entertainment.”

Hester, who worked at Norton Co. from 1973 to 1980, started in the machine shop and ended up as a facility engineer. Originally, potential members had to be at least 60 and retired to join the club but, with the name change and looser restrictions, they dropped the age to 55 and the requirement to have to have worked once at Norton Co. or Saint-Gobain, the current owner.

“We dropped it down when we made this (name) change because a lot of people now are retiring at 55,” Hester said. “It’s based on age now.”

Despite the name change and the acceptance of women, the club is still proudly associated with Saint-Gobain, which acquired Norton and the YMCA’s Greendale branch.

Women are not only welcome to join the Retired Friends of Greendale as full-fledged members, they can also serve as officers.

Wednesday, Melanie Bonsu, community relation manager at Saint-Gobain; Christina Puleo, executive director of the YMCA of Central Massachusetts; and Carol Bethoney, who retired from the home care profession, will all be bestowed with lifetime memberships into the club, with Mayor Joseph M. Petty and state Sen. Robyn K. Kennedy presenting the honorees with their awards.

In addition, Bethoney will be appointed the secretary of the Retired Friends of Greendale, which is the first time a woman has held an office in the club.

Plenty to do

The club sponsors two bowling leagues, ranging from 30 to 50 members each, at the Bayberry Lanes in Spencer, plus an additional one in the summer, as well as golf leagues, with 40 members each, at Green Hill Golf Course in Worcester, Bay Path Golf Course in East Brookfield and Pine Ridge Country Club in North Oxford.

The Greendale Retired Club also has a long-standing chorus, currently 20 members strong, that performs a few selections at each week's club meeting and also can be heard at functions, fundraisers, nursing homes and senior centers across the state.

“As a matter of fact, because we have women now, we added five new women to the chorus,” Hester said. “It sounds much better than a year ago.”

The club also offers a wide variety of trips including a Caribbean cruise, Mississippi River cruise, the Great Smoky Mountains, Savannah, Italy and other destinations, but membership is not required to go on one of the trips, Hester said.

The club is also known for its annual generosity, making regular donations to the T&G Santa Fund, Friendly House, YMCA Youth Camp program, Jeremiah's Inn, Burncoat High School ROTC, Worcester County Food Bank, Abby's House, Mercy Center, Friendly House and other organizations. For the longest time, the club has had a $5 initiation fee and $5 annual dues. Six years ago, the club went up to $10 for annual dues, Hester said.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Worcester: Retired Men's Club of Greendale to retire its longtime name