31 Oct November 2025 Newsletter

November 2025 Newsletter

Welcome to the November 2025 edition of the Daniels Foundation Newsletter. In this issue, we explore the following topics. Click on the links to read the articles!

The Demolition of Norton Company Buildings! This story begins in 1886, almost 140 years ago, and ends in 2022…. Click here to read more…
Board Member Profile: Rob Pettit! I joined the Daniels Foundation in December 2024, taking a seat in the Dwight line left open by my father William O. Pettit III…. Click here to read more…
Children and Youth Friendly City Summit! On Monday, October 6th Board members Tim Morse and Wendy Andrews attended this meeting held at the Greater Worcester Community Foundation… Click here to read more…

The Demolition of Norton Company Buildings

by Bill Pettit III

The Beginning

This story begins in 1886, almost 140 years ago, and ends in 2022. In 1886 the newly formed company, The Norton Emery Wheel Company, built its first factory building at Barbers Crossing in the far corner of the city of Worcester, on the Boylston town line. 140 years later, in 2022, at the start of the clearing and demolition of the area that Norton built up around that former farmland and railroad crossroads, there stood 45 buildings on 51 acres. There were only 10 employees those first months of 1886, and by the height of the post war boom, 5500 people worked there.

It Gets Personal

Our ancestor, Fred Harris Daniels, was one of the seven men that founded the company and served on the Board of Directors until his death in 1913. He never took an active role in the operations of the company, except as a board member guiding the overall business. This story, however, focuses largely on his oldest son, Clarence.

Clarence White Daniels was born 1884 in Worcester. Just two years before the founding of Norton Company. Clarence graduated in 1903 from Worcester Academy and went to Worcester Tech and then Columbia School of Mines. It was in 1913, the year of his father’s passing, when Clarence began working at Norton Company in the drafting department.

Clarence quickly worked his way up the levels of responsibilities to Plants Engineer, Vice President and then Board Member. Beginning in 1915, due to World War 1 demand, Clarence was responsible for building a large expansion in the Barber Crossing footprint. He essentially became a major constructor: four mills for machine manufacturing, two abrasive plants, storage facilities, and a power plant. And it was WW2 that propelled the construction of Plant 7 in 1948, the world’s largest one story five acre plant dedicated to making grinding wheels from start to finish under one roof. Prior to then the process had been spread on separate floors and in separate buildings. It was hailed as a triumph of method.

Clarence’s final project was construction of the “new” administration building on New Bond Street. It was built to locate managers of various divisions under one roof. It was finished in 1949 and Clarence promptly retired. He had supervised the expansion of the company, doubling the footprint of the Company.  During one period of eight years over $10,000,000 (at least $500,000,000 today) was spent in expansion, Clarence was responsible for all of that work.  Imagine this: up to and including the 1950’s any expenditure over $100 had to be approved by the construction committee, chaired by Clarence.

His son, Dan Daniels, worked 35 years for Norton as Superintendent of Plant Services. Uncle Dan was an avid train enthusiast, and he operated the Norton railroad system in and around the various plants and buildings.

His daughter Susie and I climbed all over the caboose that Dan kept on a siding within the factory area.

Really Personal

One of the many volunteer activities Uncle Clarence embraced was as a board member of the Shepard Knapp School, a small private grade school located in Boylston, Massachusetts…the school that your author attended.

We lived in Worcester and the school bus picked me up every morning at the bottom  of Sagamore Road. The trip to the school took us right out West Boylston St. right along the Boston and Maine Railroad line and past New Bond Street and the Norton Company. I would look out at those factory buildings and remark to myself : That’s mother’s company and I own some small part of it. Mother, as some of you know, was Sally Daniels Pettit, Dwight’s daughter. My eighth grade diploma from the Shepard Knapp school, 1964 is signed by Robert Cushman, at that time a Vice President at Norton Company.

Time marched on and in 1976 I joined the Norton Company in sales and then product management in the Watervliet, New York division.  During my hiring process I was interviewed by Bob Cushman himself.  By 1990, I had left Norton and Saint Gobain had purchased Norton Company for 1.2 billion dollars. I was the last descendant of a founder to work at Norton.

The End

As reported in the Worcester Telegram: The former Norton Company buildings in Worcester, Massachusetts, are being torn down as part of a large-scale brownfield redevelopment project. Demolition began in late 2023 to clear the 51-acre site for a new development that could include residential, retail, and life science or technology spaces.  In the 30 years since Saint Gobain took over Norton, most of the buildings were rendered obsolete by advancements in the manufacturing process. Sadly, nothing lasts forever.

The Administration Building contains Norton Hall with murals dedicated to the company, its growth and its products. But most importantly it is dedicated to the people who worked there and built the company from 1886 to 1990. The fate of that room and that building has not been decided.

In Norton Hall there is a mural of an oak tree and on the branches are the names of the employees from the beginning until there was no more space. And on the roots of that tree is the name: Fred Harris Daniels. Somewhere on those walls is the name Clarence White Daniels, the man who built all of what is being torn down. Amazing to me that I remember so much of those buildings and that property, first as a young grade schooler then as an employee working in the Administration building and finally as a passerby… thinking of all our family owes to Norton and Clarence who made so much of our lives possible.

Board Member Profile: Rob Pettit

Concerts, Skits and SNL

by Rob Pettit

I joined the Daniels Foundation in December 2024, taking a seat in the Dwight line left open by my father William O. Pettit III.

My grandmother, Sally Pettit, the youngest daughter of Dwight Daniels, served on the board as well.

My childhood memories and experiences of Worcester all come from visiting my grandparents, mostly at their house on Massachusetts Ave and dinners at the Worcester club. My father would take me around town and show me the spots he used to frequent as a child, and the Norton Co buildings.

Although I’ve never lived in Worcester, I am honored to be a part of a foundation dedicated to the social needs of a community. I do feel I can help, even from a distance, as technology is able to bring the foundation members together when we can’t make an in person meeting. Prior generations did not have tools like these at their disposal.

I grew up in Upstate New York. I went to school and graduated in Albany and spent a lot of time in Potsdam/Canton where my mother called home during my high school years. After graduating from Albany High School in 2000 I spent two years at Elmira College, where I met my now wife, Sasha. In 2002 we moved to Boston where I went to art school at The School of the Museum of Fine Arts. In 2008 we moved to Brooklyn, New York where I started building custom cabinetry. We were married in 2011 and my daughter, Sophie, was born in 2015. Since 2021 I have been working in several fabrication companies in The Brooklyn Navy Yard, building concert sets for MTV, skit sets for Saturday Night Live and most recently theatrical sets for Broadway plays.

When I’m not working, I love spending time with my family, making art, working on our house, embroidery, and messing around in my garden.

Children and Youth Friendly City Summit

By Tim Morse

On Monday, October 6th Board members Tim Morse and Wendy Andrews attended this meeting held at the Greater Worcester Community Foundation (GWCF).  Also attending was a group of coalitions that have banded together to create a Healthier and Safer Worcester for all youth. The Partnership of Coalitions consists of the Worcester Youth Violence Prevention Initiative (WYVPI), the Investing in Girls Alliance (IIGA, strongly funded by the Daniels Foundation), the Coalition for a Healthy Greater Worcester, Together for Kids Coalition and Community Connections Worcester.

Each coalition is doing great work within their own realm, but they came together to create a “shared vision” with a master plan to create strategic collaborations. They state that “Coalitions, partnerships and structured pathways are essential for integrated, systemic solutions that promote wellness, address violence and foster equity.” The mission of the gathering was to leverage the collective power to achieve equity from birth, through childhood, adolescence, and adulthood in Worcester, using public policy, advocacy, funding, and strategic decision making.  The coalitions have a shared vision about youth’s well-being, are passionate about their work, and all are grounded in data and equity.

One of the highlights, at least for the Daniels Foundation’s effort in IIGA, was the statistical relevance of our investment in IIGA.  It was clear that IIGA collaborative work is having a direct impact on the young women of Worcester.  Our data efforts track three segments: girls in no organization (the broad girl population), girls in Girl Serving Organizations (GSO’s) and girls participating with agencies who belong to IIGA.

The Investing in Girls Alliance (IIGA), our investment in primary data collection and analysis, and the agencies/people making it happen, are all proving to be affected.   Attending the Summit was a wonderful experience, and we should all hold our heads high knowing that good work is being done. Daniels Foundation approved a grant for $5,000 at the March 2025 meeting. These funds will help expand their programs, replenish harm reductions supplies, as well as sustain their work, ensuring that youth-led cooperatives and mutual aid initiatives remain viable alternatives to economic exploitation and systemic marginalization.