Medal for Ray Comerford
(From the Boston Transcript)
The Humane Society of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has notified James F. Comerford of West Roxbury that it has awarded a medal to the memory of his brother, Raymond, who died in the attempt to save a 12-year-old boy, Robert Smith, last August in high surf off Sunrise Beach, Marshfield. Despite the fact that he was not a strong swimmer, Ray was first to reach the boy. Comerford, old-time Dartmouth pitching star, was in the fourth year of his physical directorship at Leominster and was a popular member of the coaching fraternity in Massachusetts.
The notification of the award, signed by Ellery H. Clark, is sent to James Comerford because Ray's parents are not living. It reads:
"Both the trustees of this society, and myself personally, learned with profound sorrow of the heroic death of your brother. It is the custom of the society, as a mark of admiration and respect, to award their medal as if the deceased were alive, and to give it to those nearest and dearest to him.
"If I am correctly informed, your parents are not living, and I am therefore sending the medal to you, being perfectly aware that this is an infinitely small tribute, but feeling that perhaps the medal will be treasured in memory of one who reflected such honor upon his family name.
"It is wholly impossible to put into fitting words the deep sympathy I feel, but to see a man of his clean, athletic type thus cut off in his prime, seems a great loss to those associated with him and to humanity at large. I leave wholly to your discretion the matter of making this award public, but personally I feel that the newspapers should know of it, for I can conceive of no more heroic death than that of your brother. It would seem the least we can do is to have the public know that this tribute, however slight, is rendered by this society with a long and honorable record behind it."
Raymond Comerford was elected athletic director of Leominster on May 23, 1927. He received his high school education at Boston English but he was graduated from Cushing Academy in 1921 and from Dartmouth in '25. He coached at Abbott School in Earmington, Me., and took charge of the Dartmouth freshmen baseball team the following spring. He started coaching at Cushing Academy in '26 and ran up an amazing total of victories in all sports. Then he went to Leominster High and was one of the few coaches whose Leominster teams ever won from Fitchburg High.
