Dr. Helen Young, 83, Milwaukee County's first woman medical examiner; probably 1st in a major metropolitan area
Hoodini
Young was welder during WWII
By AMY RABIDEAU SILVERS
Posted: April 8, 2007
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=588239
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At a time when women doing anything professional was news, Helen Young
became Milwaukee County medical examiner.
That was in 1966.
"When Dr. Helen Young was appointed Milwaukee County's first woman
medical examiner she probably became the first woman medical examiner
in a major metropolitan area," a report then declared. "And, in a job
with a pay range of between $18,090 and $22,024 a year, she also
became the county's highest paid woman employee."
Young later served as Waukesha County's first medical examiner in
1984. As one of perhaps only four forensic pathologists in the state,
she also performed autopsies and testified in cases throughout
Wisconsin and in Illinois.
"She loved her work," son Thomas Young said. "She found it
fascinating. It was always something different."
Helen Young died April 1 from complications of emphysema. She was 83.
She last lived with her son Thomas in Greenfield.
"She always believed in respect and justice," said Paul Konicek, her
chief deputy in Waukesha County.
"Just because they're dead and can't speak doesn't mean they don't
deserve justice," she would say.
The former Helen Cooper was born in Groveton, N.H., and raised in
Portland, Maine. She worked as a World War II-era welder in
shipbuilding while an undergraduate in Boston. She graduated from
medical school at Tufts University in 1949, interning in Detroit and
serving a five-year residency in pathology in Boston.
Years later, she still kept up her dues, proud to be a member of the
welders union.
"It's the end of an era," Konicek said. "She was such a giant, such a
practical lady.
"She was from out East and came up from nothing and wasn't afraid to
tell you where the dog died," he said, quoting one of her favorite
expressions.
Young came to Wisconsin in 1958 as associate medical examiner for
Milwaukee County. She later became medical examiner, a job she left in
1972.
She had been handling some cases for Waukesha County since 1958, and,
soon after leaving the Milwaukee County job, she started working as a
part-time pathologist in that county. In 1984, she became the Waukesha
County medical examiner.
She had little patience for political squabbles or, finally, for
relatively low pay, knowing that she could find work elsewhere.
"She hated all the politics," her son said. "She was pretty headstrong
and had to be to get to where she was."
In 1990, she resigned as Waukesha County medical examiner to become
deputy medical examiner in Maine. County officials acknowledged that
they had lost "a bargain" in Young, who then earned $53,600 a year.
"She's been such a valuable asset to the county," then-Waukesha County
District Attorney Paul Bucher said in 1990. "She's eminently
qualified, she's nationally known, her credentials are impeccable.
Linda Biedrzycki, now Waukesha County medical examiner, agreed.
"Certainly, she was a pioneer," Biedrzycki said. "When she began,
forensic pathology was a very new field. She was really one of the
first to become board-certified.
"She had a real Yankee sensibility. She told it like it was, and if
you didn't like it, 'Oh, well.' "
Young eventually returned to Wisconsin and moved to Green Bay after
her retirement, but she kept handling cases in northern Wisconsin
until she was about 73. She and her aunt, Dorothea Pike, now 102,
moved to her son's home in Greenfield in 2003.
For Young, finding the truth of why someone died could mean the
difference between catching a killer or setting an innocent person
free. It also could save other lives.
"If someone had a congenital heart defect - the guy who had a heart
attack the day after he retired and he has a 40-year-old son - she was
worried about the next generation, too," her son said.
In addition to her aunt and Thomas Young, survivors include another
son, Alexander, and a granddaughter, Amanda. A son, William, died at
the age of 10, after surgery for a heart defect.
A private service will be held in New Hampshire.
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