People In Our Neighborhood – Bill Youngman

Classic Cornucopia: People In Our Neighborhood

William J. Youngman is one of the people in our neighborhood. He was actually born in Walworth; (on February 20th) right in the house at the east end of sherburne Road. His folks rented the house until he was about one year old.
Bill has lived in Walworth his entire life. He can remember visiting the site of the original Walworth Academy with his father before they built the “new”Walworth High School. (Which, we all know, is now the Academy Apartments._
“When I went to school,” he recalled. “There wasn’t any Kindergarten. There was one teacher for the First and Second Grades, one for the Third and Fourth Grades, another the Fifth and Sixth, and another for the Seventh and Eighth Grades. Then we switched teachers for our classes in high school.”
Bill attended twelve years of school, but lacked enough English credits to actually graduate. He went into the Armed Services, instead.
He was in the Infantry (boot camp) and trained with the Air Born Glider Troops. He finished out his two-year military stint in Ordinance (distributing parts and pieces).
After the war, he worked for several months with his father doing carpentry work.
He was then hired by Todd Printers. They printed checks and business forms.
During Bill’s 40 year tenure, he saw Todd’s be bought by Burroughs; who then merged with Sperry Rand. Unisys own the company when it was sold to Standard Register. Bill retired two weeks before the sale was final.
Bill and his wife, Arlene, have lived on Center Street for 45 years. Although Arlene grew-up in Lincoln, she attended the Walworth High School. They knew of each other during school, but he didn’t REALLY meet her until she was a Senior. She was working in the Senior’s Booth at the Fireman’s Fair in Palmyra
They were married on January 4, 1947. They have four grown children: Richard, is an attorney, Karen is an Assistant Vice-President for a Rochester insurance firm, Lori is an accountant and mother of Amanda and Jennifer. Lisa is a Speech Pathologist with BOCES #1 and the mother of Holly.
One of their fun get-away activities is to go to a cabin in Canada with his brother, Gordon, and his family. The next time you see Bill, ask him about the time they got the chipmunks drunk!
Along with raising his family and being employed, Bill is active in the Walworth Lodge, a Past Commander of the American Legion Post #1710, served on the committee for the Boy Scouts of America for 5 years, bowled with the Thursday Night Mixed League for 36 years and is presently President of the Walworth Cemetery Association.
“I have a lot of information on the cemetery,” he said, dieing to talk about it. “It was established in 1852, but there are head stones in there dated 1826. It must have been a family burial place well before it was formally established as a cemetery.”
The Walworth Cemetery is located off Sherburne Road and commands quite a lovely view of the hamlet.
Funds for the maintenance of the cemetery come from a 10% fee on each purchase of a grave site. That money is put into an endowment fund. Only the interest from the endowment fund is used for up-keep.
Donations toward this end are also gratefully accepted.
I assured Bill I would dig into this issue at a later date.
In the meantime, Thanks, Bill, you are a Walworthian with the accent on WORTH.
Copyright © 1995, 2010 by Kate Chamberlin, All rights reserved.
A version of this interview first appeared June15, 1995 WCS