Battings a MHS family tradition

The Battings, MHS a family tradition

By David D. Haskell

Two young immigrants met and fell in love aboard ship as they sailed toward unknown challenges in America where they would thrive and give life to a family tradition that has five generations sharing a special bond with Malden High School.

Joseph Batting was just 21 when 16-year-old Emma Bennett New caught his eye and love blossomed during the seven-week trans-Atlantic voyage from their native England. The year was about 1845.

Two years later Joseph and Emma married and eventually settled in Malden. They had 11 children, including Raymond who in 1883 would become the first in a direct line of five male Batting descendants to graduate from Malden High.

Raymond became well known in Malden. He rose to be a vice president of the Locke Coal Co. and a director of the Malden Chamber of Commerce, formerly the Board of Trade. Raymond’s son Dana became the second Batting to graduate MHS, in the Class of 1927-B. Dana’s future wife, Ethel Norris, was a member of the same class.

“Dinty,” as Dana was known, was class orator (his oration is printed in his class yearbook) and also led the school’s cheerleading squad. He rose to prominence as a vice president of the Malden Trust Co., handling many mortgages in the community.

It was Dana’s son Dann who graduated in 1959, the third in the line to do so. Dann, a veteran of four years in the Navy and an artist who found inspiration in art classes at Beebe Junior High, became an award winning architect whose homes and commercial projects are on display throughout the region.

Dann’s son Brett added the fourth diploma to the line, graduating in 1989. Brett took part in a co-op program at MHS alternating periods of working with wood in shop and academic classes. Brett became a highly skilled craftsman whose fine furnishings and high-end cabinets grace many homes and offices in the region, including some in the halls of Malden High.

This spring the Battings celebrated the fifth in the line to earn a diploma from MHS, Brett’s son Brian, a Class of 2016 Maldonian staffer, high school golfer and varsity baseball player. Brian is heading off to Worcester State University to begin his studies in marketing.

Good luck, Brian. The next chapter is yours to write.

The Malden High School Alumni Association wants to thank the Batting family for bringing this American story to its attention, particularly Dann’s sister Ann Batting Ahlin, MHS Class of ’65, Brett’s wife Theresa “Teri” Rotunno Batting, and Dann’s wife Susan Price-Batting.

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Contact: David D. Haskell MHSAA 781-324-2725

Dhaskell2@verizon.net