List of People From Uxbridge, Massachusetts - 20th Century

20th Century

• Charles Arthur Root bought Scott's Mill, and later Capron Mill, and Rivulet mills. He and Edward Bachman of New York City, developed the Bachman Uxbridge Worsted Company into an enterprise with 13 plants, in 4 states with over 6,000 workers. The successor company, Bachmann Uxbridge (1953 sales, $52,609,000; profit, $272,000) would be by far the biggest woolen manufacturer in the country. (Time Magazine, 1953).
• Alice Bridges, born in 1916, was a 20 year old Uxbridge woman who won a Bronze medal for the backstroke in the 1936 Summer Olympics. She and her sister learned to swim at "Pout Pound" and the Whitin's Gym which had an Olympic pool since the 1920s. She apparently placed first, but Nazi politics ruled the day at the Berlin Olympics and she clinched the Bronze. The bridge across the Mumford River in the center of town was named for her in 2008. She died recently in Carlisle, Pennsylvania but continued swimming in her mid nineties.
• Harold Walter, originally from Colorado, became the President of the Bachman Uxbridge Worsted Company. At its peak it was one of the most successful textile companies in America. The company had seven, and ultimately thirteen plants, nationwide, and was written up in Time magazine in August 1953 in an article entitled "the Pride of Uxbridge". The company led the women's fashion industry in America in 1953 with one of its products. Under his leadership, the company also led the industry in blended fabrics, and wool-nylon serge. Walter planned a merger of Bachman Uxbridge as a buy out of debt laden American Woolen which would have created America's largest woolen conglomerate(Time Magazine, 1954). Textron of Providence eventually won the competition.
• Richard T. Moore was in the 1990s, a local state senator, who served as Massachusetts chairman of President Bill Clinton's campaign, as the Associate Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) under President Clinton. Moore focused his efforts on local emergency preparedness efforts and capacity for FEMA, 5 years before 9/11.
• Tim Fortugno graduated from Uxbridge High School in 1980, and played Professional baseball as a relief pitcher. Teams he played for included the California Angels, The Chicago White Sox, and the Cincinnati Reds.
• Jeannine Oppewall is a film art director and producer who has worked on more than 30 films and has 4 Academy Awards nominations. Jeanine was born in 1946 and raised in Uxbridge.
• Arthur Wheelock was the CEO and family scion of the Stanley Woolen Mills. Arthur is a historian in his own right and has shared history of the textile industry, and of his family of origin, which descends from the early textile pioneer, Jerry Wheelock, and the earlier east England clergyman who came to New England, Rev. Ralph Wheelock, (Rev. Ralph Wheelock, 17h century figure, is attributed as the father of American public education at Dedham, Massachusetts Colony.)