Helped document a stop on Underground Railroad

Stories told by Earl F. Young to Lake Zurich historians helped to document a long-held legend: that the village and its 19th-century Maple Leaf Hotel had been a stop on the Underground Railroad.

Mr. Young was a lifelong resident of Lake Zurich, whose parents both had come from historic families. His grandfather, Philip Young, had run a livery stable in Lake Zurich, next to the Maple Leaf Hotel, while his mother's family, the Froehlichs, were among the village's original settlers.

As it was, Mr. Young grew up in the Maple Leaf Hotel that dated back to 1842, which his grandmother had run and his parents later managed.

"While working on the hotel, Earl said he had found a series of small rooms and a tunnel that supported the Underground Railroad theory," says Nancy Loomis Schroeder, of the Ela Historical Society in Lake Zurich, "and that it connected up with Old Rand Road."

Schroeder and other historical society members documented many of Mr. Young's memories, and his classmate and lifelong friend, Spencer Loomis now is compiling them into a local history book about the area.

Mr. Young died Nov. 28 in DeKalb when he was struck by a freight train while walking. He was 83.

Mr. Young graduated from the former Ela Vernon High School, now Lake Zurich High School, in 1942, before attending Northern Illinois University, where he earned an education degree.

It was in a zoology class that he met his future wife, Nancy Jean Kennedy, whom he married in 1948.

According to his wife, Mr. Young nearly majored in music. He played trumpet in the marching and concert bands at NIU, and later in some local swing bands, but he turned to education to provide a career.

Mr. Young began teaching science at Grayslake High School before moving to Glenbrook North High School in Glenview, where he led the science department, and taught earth science and physics for 30 years.

Colleagues describe him as a popular, "old school" type teacher who never missed a day of work, and engaged his students with lots of lab work.

One of his trademarks each year was to eat chalk, says biology teacher Mike Piskel.

"Chalk is really calcium carbonate, and it's good for you," Piskel said, "but I think he liked to do it for the shock value. That's the kind of teacher he was.

"He held students up to high expectations," Piskel added, "but he was very approachable."

Each year since his retirement, the school has awarded the Earl Young Scholarship to a student who intends to pursue a career in science or science education, and family members intend to forward memorials to further endow the scholarship.

Besides his wife, Mr. Young is survived by his five children, including his son, David (Barbara) of Conover, Wis., and daughters, Sarah (Robert) Hudson and Susan (John) McCormick, both of Barrington; Nan Young of Lake Zurich and Carol (John) Hoem of Island Lake; as well as four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

A memorial service for Mr. Young will take place at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at Barrington United Methodist Church chapel, 98 Algonquin Road in Barrington.