Trustee Young makes lots of time for her community

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By Sandra Baer, Contributing Writer 1:22 PM Thursday, November 4, 2010

Volunteering and community service are both important aspects of Joyce Young’s life.

The Washington Twp. trustee has spent a lifetime committed to improving the lives of those around her from making public policy in Washington Twp. to her many volunteer activities that have garnered her recognition and awards like the Montgomery County Citizen of the Year Award, Altrusa Volunteer of the Year and the recent 2010 YMCA Women of Influence Lifetime Award.

“I’ve been very much involved in the community,” said Young, who has served on the boards of the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery, Human Race Theatre Board and Montgomery County Family and Children First Council.

Young was born in Springfield, Mass., and attended Classical High School where she played in the orchestra and worked on the school newspaper. She also worked part time in a department store and as a camp counselor during the summer.

After graduating in 1952, Young attended Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Mass., for one year. She contracted polio after her freshman year and had to take a year off to recuperate.

“I transferred to Radcliff when I returned to college, because Fred was studying at Harvard Law School,” said Young, who was matched up with another young man on a triple blind date when she met her husband, Fred.

“Fred was a native Daytonian. He earned a degree at Wesleyan and then went on to Harvard.”

The couple wed and returned to the area, living in Miami Twp. before moving to Washington Twp. where they raised their four children, who all graduated from Centerville High School.

Young’s children include: Margaret Young, who graduated from Mount Holyoke and Northwestern University Law School and currently practices law in Dayton; Shirley Young Spelman, who lives in Stafford, Va., with her husband, Joe, and two children, Robert and Tracy; Ann Young Sjostrom, who met her husband, Anders, while working at MIT and currently lives in his native Sweden with their children, Johanna and Maja Lisa; and Mary Young, who lives in Brandenton, Fla., where she works for the state of Florida.

While Young volunteered and stayed at home with her children, Fred Young, now deceased, pursued a career in politics serving as a state representative for eight years, the Republican Party County Chairman and as an Appellate Court Judge.

Young eventually went back to work at the Miami Valley Child Development Center and took classes at Wright State University where she completed a degree in English literature in 1975.

“I went back to my first love, which is child care,” said Young of her job at the Miami Valley Child Development Center.

“We helped parents find reliable affordable day care at the Child Care Clearing House. I did love that.”

Young later worked at the Wright State School of Medicine and in the public affairs department at the Midwestern Headquarters of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company.

When the University of Dayton Pi Beta Phi chapter was started in 1989, Young was an honorary inductee.

She continues to volunteer with the Pi Beta Phi Alumnae Club and will be attending the upcoming Floral Fantasy to be held 7 p.m., Nov. 18 at Epiphany Lutheran Church, 6430 Far Hills Ave. in Centerville. For tickets, call (937) 317-0055.

The event features three local florists, each creating six holiday flower arrangements that are later used as door prizes for those attending the fundraiser, which is held to raise money for scholarships.

Alumnae members like Young will be joined by UD Pi Beta Phi students, who assist in serving the homemade appetizers and desserts throughout the evening.

Contact this columnist at (937) 432-9054 or jjbaer@aol.com.

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