June 9, 1918 — September 1, 2022
Joseph Stanley Young of Reading, MA, passed away peacefully on Thursday, September 1, 2022. He was 104 years of age.
Born on Sunday, June 9, 1918 in Reading, Joseph was the son of the late Michael Joseph Young of Codroy Valley, Newfoundland, and Evangeline (Muise) Young, of Belleville, Nova Scotia. Joseph was a warm, kind, and caring son, brother, husband, father, grandfather, great grandfather, great great grandfather, uncle, friend, and mentor who will be deeply missed and long remembered.
In his childhood, Joseph lived in Reading, Wakefield, and Lynn, MA, as well as Rockport, ME. He was a graduate of Lynn Classical High School.
Upon graduation, Joseph first worked with his father and brother on the New York State Barge Canal system as a Barge Captain, and later as a Team Leader in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) during construction of the largest dam on the Winooski River in Vermont.
From an early age, Joseph was interested in all things mechanical, electrical, and scientific, much of which he studied on the pages Popular Mechanics, which in those days was a substantial publication stretching to hundreds of pages in each monthly issue. Joseph put the knowledge gained from reading and experimentation to good use building several diving helmets, a radio-controlled submarine, ham radio gear, two sailboats and a 44-foot powerboat as well as about a dozen smaller paddle and rowing craft right up until his one-hundredth birthday.
Drafted in World War II, he served as a Sergeant in the United States Army’s 8th Infantry Division, mostly in the Mohave Desert, training for North Africa Campaign and later for the anticipated crossing of the Rhine River. The fast pace of the War and of General Patton, in particular, kept the 8th Infantry from its intended missions. He really wanted to join the Navy, but when the Army became the only option along with assignment to radio communications, he asked which was the heaviest radio available. The answer was the radio in the CO’s Command Car, so Sergeant Young rode his way through the Army.
Instead of deploying to Europe with the 8th Infantry, Joseph was reassigned to Fort Meade, MD, in the Army Signals Intelligence Service, predecessor of the NSA, where he was involved in radio intercepts and countermeasures to and from both the European and Pacific Theaters.
Shortly after he married Rachel in 1944 and was discharged due to poor eyesight, both moved to Massachusetts where Joseph served in the State Police, also in communications. When the opportunity to build the radio network for the soon-to-be-formed Vermont State Police arose, Joseph and family moved to Montpelier, VT. He was the only “civilian” in the original Vermont State Police and as such he was listed on a separate line-item in the State budget.
In pursuit of better educational opportunities for their children, Joseph and Rachel left Vermont and moved to North Haven, CT. Not long afterward, Joseph learned of a dream job opportunity at Bell Telephone Laboratories headquarters in Murray Hill, NJ. While notably older than any other new employee, he was hired in 1955. Despite lacking a college degree, his skill, contributions, and creativity earned him the honor of being named Member of the Technical Staff (MTS) before retirement in 1983.
Joseph moved back to the town of his birth in 1956, when the Bell Labs created a division for long-distance communications at North Andover. Among the projects he worked on was the prototype Bellboy paging receiver that made its first public appearance at the Seattle World’s Fair in 1962 and was later sold to Motorola where the device became a predecessor of what is now known as the cellular telephone.
Descended from a long line of seamen and fishermen from the Canadian Maritimes, it is not surprising that love of the sea was deeply rooted in Joseph. In the early ‘60s he taught himself naval architecture and design from books at the Reading Public Library. His first design was an 18-foot sailboat built in the basement to the surprise of many who asked how he expected to get it out the cellar door that was only 3 feet wide. By just knocking down the 12-inch thick concrete foundation wall, he said. And, so he did mostly with chisel and sledge hammer on the hottest day in June 1962. Later, he rescued an aged and leaking Wianno Senior from the Merrimac River and converted it into a 27-foot cruising sailboat with inboard engine. Much of the hardware and equipment of the boats were custom designed and built by Joseph.
Later, on the Bicentennial, July 4, 1976, he laid down the lines of a 44-foot trawler-style yacht that he designed on just two sheets of paper, and spent the next 9 years building it behind the house on Laurel Lane. Again, friends and neighbors kept asking how he could possibly get the 25-ton boat out of the backyard. By just lifting it over the house, he replied. And, so he did. For the next 19 years he and Rachel lived full-time aboard the “Rachel J.” plying the Eastern seaboard between New England and Florida with excursions into the St. Lawrence River in Canada.
Along the way they made countless friends and helped even more there and in their years as members of the Volunteer Yacht Club in Lynn, MA.
Joseph was happy and thankful that “Rachel J.” remained in the family of his closest lifetime friend and cousin, the late Ernest Doucette also of Lynn. Joseph’s niece, Nancy Spiro, and her husband, Robert Spiro, together with daughter Kimberly have maintained the boat in better than new condition and always ready for more adventures now 37 years after its launching and christening.
Families are more than relations by blood. Back in the early ‘60s, Rachel wanted to care for young children as her two sons were now in high school. So, she became licensed by the State and cared for over 20 children, most two years or younger, while their single or married parents worked. Rachel and Joseph became Aunt and Uncle to more boys and girls than we can recount here, but do wish to mention last four, Mary and Joseph DiGiovanni’s children: Diane, Joseph, Karen, and Mark. All, along with their spouses and 12 children, became close and dear members of the family.
Joseph was the beloved husband of the late Rachel Jean (Mastrangelo) Young. Also, he was the devoted father of Michael Stanley Young and his wife Rosemary Nelson and Joseph James Young. Being the grandfather of Christine Hotten and Michael Doyle, Joseph is the great-grandfather of Kristen Hotten-Ristic, Nicole Rose Hotten, Tessa Rose Doyle, and the great-great-grandfather of Sofia Ristic.
Services to commemorate Joseph’s life will be held at a later date.
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