Nathan Prentice Avery (March 13, 1869 – April 12, 1947), was an American lawyer, politician, the twentieth mayor of

Holyoke, Massachusetts Holyoke is a city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States, that lies between the western bank of the Connecticut River and the Mount Tom Range. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 38,238. Located north of Springfield ...

, a delegate for the First Congressional District to the

Massachusetts Constitutional Convention of 1917–1918 Massachusetts ( Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous state in the New England region of t ...

, and the longest serving president of the

Massachusetts Bar Association The Massachusetts Bar Association (MBA) is a voluntary, non-profit bar association in Massachusetts with a headquarters on West Street in Boston's Downtown Crossing. The MBA also has a Western Massachusetts office. The purpose of the MBA is t ...

. Additionally he held the longest tenure in the office of mayor up until that time, a record he would keep until the second administration of Henry J. Toepfert in the 1940s. Avery, present in many facets of civic life, was an advocate for an improved water shed management program through the Holyoke Water Works, writing about the importance of forest conservation in the ''

New York Tribune The ''New-York Tribune'' was an American newspaper founded in 1841 by editor Horace Greeley. It bore the moniker ''New-York Daily Tribune'' from 1842 to 1866 before returning to its original name. From the 1840s through the 1860s it was the domi ...

'' in 1909. In 1933 the Hampden Playground between Hampden and Dwight Street was renamed in his honor as Avery Field. In his later years he remained an active member of the school board for more than a decade, was elected to the Massachusetts Bar for an unprecedented third term in 1935, and in 1939 was appointed by Governor Leverett Saltonstall to serve on the Judicial Commission of Massachusetts. Avery remained at his legal practice up until his death from heart failure on April 12, 1947.

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1867 births 1947 deaths 20th-century American politicians Amherst College alumni Educators from Massachusetts Mayors of Holyoke, Massachusetts Massachusetts lawyers Massachusetts Republicans People from Norwich, Connecticut {{Massachusetts-politician-stub