Anna Irwin Young

November 25, 1873 - September 3, 1920

Reprinted with permission from Lest We Forget: An Account of Agnes Scott College, by Walter Edward McNair, Tucker-Castleberry Printing, Inc. 1983. Copyright Agnes Scott College.

Professor Anna Irwin Young was born in the greater Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, area on November 25, 1873. Her father, the Rev. Samuel Young, a native of Ireland, was at the time pastor of the Sandusky Street Church in Allegheny just across the Allegheny River from Pittsburgh. In the middle 1890's Mr. Young moved his family to Atlanta where he lived for the remainder of his life.

For two years beginning in 1893, Anna Young was a student in Agnes Scott Institute, apparently completing her work in 1895. In 1898 she was appointed to the Department of Mathematics, rising to be Professor of Mathematics, a post she held until her death in 1920. She also served as Librarian from 1898 to 1902. When Agnes Scott became a college in 1905-1906, she continued in the college faculty; however, feeling that she should have a degree, she took the requisite courses and received her B.A. degree in 1910 although while she was pursuing this work she was concurrently Professor of Mathematics. Professor Young took a leave of absence in 1913-1914 during which time she received her M.A. degree from Columbia University. [In 1916 she became a charter member of the Mathematical Association of America.] She died quite unexpectedly of pneumonia on September 3, 1920, while visiting relatives in Pittsburgh.

From every evidence at hand, Professor Anna I. Young must have been one of the most effective and greatly loved faculty members who ever taught at Agnes Scott. Shortly after her death, a little pamphlet was published entitled simple "Miss Anna." This phamplet tells of her excellence as a teacher, of her concern that her students do well, and of her understanding of their difficulties. One account is of a senior who repeatedly failed trigonometry "until the day came when she had the last exam that she could have on it. And she'd studied so hard and was so scared that in the glare of the classroom and under the sound of the thumping of her own heart she forgot everything she knew and didn't try to work some of the problems. That night she was sent for and she went to Miss Young's room. 'Now,' said Miss Young sweetly and firmly, 'I know you know this, and I know you can work these problems. Sit down in that chair and work them.' And there in the quiet she worked them. And so -- she passed."

[From another entry in Miss Anna: "She loved [her work] very much, you know--that which seemed to some of us sometimes dry, sometimes even appalling. There were times when she gave some of her advanced courses to but two girls, for the pleasure she got from teaching them and for the joy of seeing her department grow. Also, I'm sure, for the joy of finding someone else who shared her love for mathematics."]

The first issue of The Agonistic for the 1920-1921 year carried a front page article about Professor Young, part of which reads as follows:

It is hard indeed for the students of Agnes Scott to express our grief. Our sense of loss is too great, for Miss Young was everything to us that a fine professor, a friend whose sympathy was unbounded, and a Christiam character, whose life was all service for others could be. In everything that pertained to our college she was sincerely interested. An alumna of Agnes Scott herself, she was tireless in her activities in behalf of the alumnae of Agnes Scott, and always the staunchest supporter of everything that could contribute to the welfare and growth of our college. And in the students and their affairs, there was none more helpful. Whether we went to her for advice in personal affairs or in those things that concerned the college community, we found the same ready counsellor and willing spirit. She helped us with our little tasks that were hard, and again with student government affairs, our Y.W.C.A., our united war work drives -- in fact, with everything that demanded real aid.

The Class of 1920, the last group that Professor Young lived to see graduate, dedicated [the college yearbook] The Silhouette to her with these words: To her whose loyal devotion has ever been an inspiration in our college life.

When the Alumnae House was erected in 1923, it was named the Anna Young Alumnae House in memory of Professor Young. In the main hall of this building hangs a panel which features a profile liekness of Miss Young. Below the likeness is inscribed one of her favorite quotations: "Till the day dawns." She undoubtedly was a catalyst for excellent and goodness in the early days of Agnes Scott.