Pauline Young

Pauline Young was Supervisor of Music in the Billerica public schools from 1946 to 1951. She was born in Merrimack, New Hampshire, on April 10, 1914, the daughter of Charles F. and Bessie (Copp) Young, grew up in Nashua and graduated from Nashua High School. She studied violin at the New England Conservatory of Music and received the degree of Bachelor of Music from Syracuse University, and she taught vocal and instrumental music on Martha's Vineyard and in Bristol, Connecticut, before coming to Billerica.

The School Committee appointed her Music Supervisor in 1946, the year Mildred B. McKeen retired. At Howe High School she directed the chorus, the Glee Club and the orchestra; the 1949 yearbook said that she "did an excellent job of leading the choristers," and that year the orchestra played music by Pierne, Rameau and Sullivan. She was on leave of absence in 1949, and she earned a master's degree in music education at Boston University in 1951. The 1951 yearbook shows the Glee Club and orchestra under Miss Young and Samuel Quagenti. She resigned that year, when the School Committee appointed Mr. Quagenti and Elizabeth L. Johnson.

From 1951 she taught in the public schools of North Adams, Massachusetts, first as music director and later as an elementary vocal teacher. She spent 1960 to 1962 teaching at the American Elementary Dependent School for the Army in Nuremberg, Germany, then returned to North Adams and retired in 1984. She died at North Adams on December 11, 2006, aged 92, and was buried in Last Rest Cemetery in Merrimack. She left $200,000 for the music program of the North Adams public schools, and Drury High School gives a Polly Young Music Award each year.

References

1. Billerica Town Report 1946, superintendent's report: Mildred B. McKeen, Music Supervisor, leaves the school system
2. Billerica Town Report 1946, superintendent's report: appointments, Pauline Young, Music Supervisor
3. Billerica Town Report 1949, changes in personnel: leave of absence, Pauline Young
4. Billerica Town Report 1951, superintendent's report: resignation of Pauline Young; appointment of Elizabeth L. Johnson and S. Samuel Quagenti
5. Howe High Yearbook 1947, p. 37: Glee Club, director Miss Pauline Young
6. Howe High Yearbook 1949: faculty, Pauline Young, N.E. Cons. of Music; Syracuse Univ.; Music
7. Howe High Yearbook 1949, p. 45: chorus and Glee Club, director Miss Pauline Young
8. Howe High Yearbook 1949, p. 46: orchestra, director Miss Pauline Young, and its repertoire
9. Howe High Yearbook 1951: Glee Club and Orchestra under Miss Pauline Young and Mr. Quagenti
10. Obituary of Pauline Young, iBerkshires, December 2006 (born Merrimack, N.H., April 10, 1914; died December 11, 2006)
11. iBerkshires, January 31, 2007: "Young At Heart: A Legacy Of Music," her bequest to the North Adams school music program