In Memoriam: Mary Elizabeth Young, 1929-2021

Mary Young, a professor emerita of history at the Univerity of Rochester, died on February 12 in Rochester, New York. She was 91 years old.

A native of Utica, New York, Dr. Young earned her bachelor’s degree in history at Oberlin College in Ohio in 1950. She earned a Ph.D. in history at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

Dr. Young joined the faculty at Ohio State University as an instructor in 1955. At this time, she was one of few academic historians devoted to the serious study of American Indians. She authored Redskins, Ruffleshirts, and Rednecks: Indian Allotments in Mississippi and Alabama, 1830–1860 (University of Oklahoma Press, 1961). The book was reprinted 40 years later.

Dr. Young was promoted to assistant professor at Ohio State in 1958 and a full professor in 1969. She joined the faculty at the University of Rochester in 1973 as a full professor of history. She was the first woman to hold the rank of full professor of history at the university.

Dr. Young retired in 2000. In 2002, the University of Rochester named a lecture series in her honor.