Rosamond McPherson "Roz" Young (October 4, 1912 – September 18, 2005) was an author, educator, historian, and for more than 25 years a "beloved"[1] columnist for The Dayton Daily News and, prior to that, The Journal HeraldinDayton, Ohio. Her columns appeared on the Op-Ed page at a time when few women received bylines outside the Women's Pages. She was noted for taking other writers to task for lapses in grammar and for frequently including mention of her cat, Edith, in her columns.
Young was born in Dayton, Ohio on October 4, 1912, to artist Harry W. and Isabel Gilbert McPherson. She graduated from Dayton's Steele High School in 1930 and received a bachelor's degree (1934) and a Master's (1936) from Oberlin College.[2]
After receiving her degree in English literature from Oberlin College in 1934, Young applied for a job at the Dayton Journal, who told her "We don't hire women! But if you want to work for free, we'll let you." At her mother's insistence she returned to school to get a degree she could use to make a living.[3] Young taught English, German, Latin and journalism for more than thirty years at Wilbur Wright and then High School, both in Dayton.[1][4] "It took me until 1970 to work my way out of the classroom."[3] She replaced "legendary" columnist Marj Heyduck, who died that year.[3]
Young's daily column "appeared opposite the Editorial page at a time when women writers were usually relegated to the Women's Page," which generally covered fashion, debuts, social events, and homemaking[5][4] starting in 1970. In 1982 she semi-retired, writing a single column each week which appeared on Saturdays, until her death in 2005. She covered topics ranging from local history and culture to the current doings of her cat, Edith.[3][6][4] She was noted for "tak(ing) others to task for grammatical lapses" in her columns;[1][7] in an obituary on the Op-Ed page, the Dayton Daily News said "she'll correct God himself if he doesn't use the possessive with his gerunds."[5] She assessed a 25-cent fine on colleagues who allowed grammatical errors to make it into print.[7][3] Her 2005 obituary appeared on the front page of the Dayton Daily News.[2]
The Dayton Foundation referred to her as "famed,"[8] and the University of Dayton as "beloved."[1] The Dayton Daily News Editorial Board called her "a Dayton institution."[5]
She often helped young women writers, "leaving some to wonder if she was giving them what she hadn't gotten early in her career."[5] Novelist Trudy Krisher describes in a column after Young's death how Young had helped Krisher attract the attention of a literary agent.[9] Novelist P. D. James described their friendship in a column memorializing Young.[10]
In addition to her weekly column, Young wrote academic textbooks, young adult biography and fiction, history, and popular literature.[1] Her books were variously published under the names Rosamond McPherson, Rosamond McPherson Young, and Roz Young.
Young married former widower William A. Young, a director at Camp Kern,[11] whom she met while researching the history of the YMCA for a book, in 1953. She was widowed in 1966.[2][4]
