Johanna L. H. Young, Joan, age 82, died on January 10, 2013. Born July 9, 1930, she graduated from the Montrose School in Essex Fells, NJ, attended Wheaton College and graduated from Uppsala College. Soon after, she joined the U.S. Navy, had an outstanding career and was one of the first women, back in the day, to achieve the rank of captain. She served as a naval intelligence officer at Pearl Harbor, San Francisco and the Pentagon. When she moved to Boston, she headed the recruitment office there. Then in the reserves, she ran a tight ship in the 1st Naval District in Lawrence, MA.
Alternating with her love of the sea she also loved to ski at Mad River Glen. Traveling from Marblehead, MA, she spent most of her winters at her ski house and was a member of the Mad River Homeowners Association. However, old timers in the area knew Joan from the early days when the "practice slope" was the only way down and Roland Palmedo was busy designing and cutting other fantastic trails down the mountain.
During that time, Joan was a member of the Montclair Ski Club and enjoyed many off-season work weekends helping to build and maintain their lodge on Schuss Pass. In those days, a call home required a walk to the wooden callbox where you cranked up the phone and asked the local operator to put through your call.
If there was no room at the lodge, Joan checked into the old Beckenridge Lodge, ordered a venison steak for dinner and then relaxed by the fire while Otto Beckenridge told his stories or debated the pros and cons of moose versus venison steaks. Next morning, it was off to the Montclair Ski Club to repair the deck, chop kindling or do whatever needed to be done.
Joan was an expert skier who taught two generations of her family to ski and only gave up the expert trails in her late 70s. Staying with her on weekends was a treat for her family and friends. If you had to stay indoors, there was always a jigsaw puzzle to work on or a game of Parcheesi, cribbage or Yahtzee, a roaring fire in the fireplace and a pot of cheese fondue.
After a big snowfall, there were snowmen to build, igloos too and, of course, snow angels! Like many other Mad River Glen devotees, Joan had a predilection for going off trail, through the woods, getting closer to the mountain she loved. "See you at the 19th hole?" "Paradise? I know where that is!" "Here's where you cut off the Antelope and ski to my back door!" She created many special memories for her friends and family with her zest for life.
Joan was an amazing multifaceted woman who also loved to golf and enjoyed concerts at the Boston Symphony and plays at the North Shore Theater in Beverly, MA. She was a great cook and a volunteer for anyone who needed help. She was on call 24/7 her whole life long which always kept her busy.
If you knew Joan, you also knew she loved life, family, God and country. Her faith was strong. She attended the First Church of Swampscott, Congregational. At the end of her mercifully short bout with cancer, she said she had a good long life and loved her family.
She is survived by her loving sister, Helen Y. Post of Vero Beach, FL; adoring nieces, Wilhelmina C. Randall of Ponte Vedra Beach, FL, Susan P. Schlactenhaufen of Lake Forest, IL, and Elizabeth Cundari of Verona, NJ; nine grandnieces and grandnephews, one great grandniece, one great grandnephew; and many devoted friends, especially her best friend, Joanne H. Evans.
A memorial service will be held on Saturday, February 2, 2013, 4 p.m., at the First Church in Swampscott in Swampscott, MA. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network in memory of Johanna Young. The address is 1500 Rosecrans Avenue, Suite 200, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266. Please visit the online guestbook at www.eustisandcornellfuneralhome.com.
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