Irvin L. Young Memorial Library Considering Name Change

Posted on: June 9, 2025

Editor’s note: The following press release was provided by the Irvin L. Young Library.

The Library Board will consider a proposal to change the name of the Irvin L. Young Memorial Library to Whitewater Public Library in its monthly meeting on June 16.

Jim Winship, who had been a longtime Library Board member and served as Chair of the library’s successful Capital Campaign, is making this proposal. He states: “Thanks to the City of Whitewater and the generosity of a large number of Whitewater area residents, we are completing a building project which increases the library size by 4400 sq. ft. and transforms the building. When the construction and renovation is complete, the library will have an expanded early learning wing, a new teen area, a larger Makerspace, additional collaboration spaces, outdoor event space, and greater accessibility. The name Whitewater Public Library, which is the way many people now refer to the library, best suits our library.”

The Library Board will meet at 6:30 p.m. on June 16 in the Cravath Lakefront Conference Room on the 2nd floor of the City of Whitewater’s Municipal Building, located at 312 W. Whitewater Street. Individuals wishing to speak to the proposal are welcome to attend the meeting.

Editor’s note: Irvin L. Young was born in 1897 in Milwaukee. He was an alumnus of Lake Forest College of Lake Forest, IL and McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago. In 1940 he started the Snow Valley plant of Young Engineering in Palmyra. In 1954 he married Fern Drummond Jones of Chicago and established a home in his farm in the Palmyra area as well as retaining the Chicago home. Per his obituary, “He dedicated his life and income to the Irvin L. Young Foundation, a charitable foundation concerned mainly with the support of medical missionary work in Africa working through the board of 15 different denominations….Untold thousands of lives have been affected by the life and work of this one man.” Fern Young died in 2002. The Irvin L. Young Foundation made donations from its remaining assets of approximately $670,000 in 2019 and it was dissolved effective November 1, 2020.

The Whitewater Banner asked Library Director Diane Jaroch if she knew whether there were any stipulations connected to the foundation’s donation specifying how long the library was required to be named after Young. Jaroch replied, “I did do research before this idea was proposed, and there is nothing in the paperwork stating that we cannot change the name of the library. I also consulted with Stacey Lunsford, the former Director. I plan to present the board with information on the history of the naming rights in their June board packet, so they will have all of the pertinent information they need before the June 16 board meeting.”

Local historian Carol Cartwright indicated that newspaper articles from 1987 and 1989 reported that the Young foundation gave $500,000 toward the library with the stipulation that it be named after Irvin Young. She stated that nothing was said about the duration of the naming. Taking inflation into account, today’s value of that donation would be approximately $1,300,000. The library opened in 1991, so it has carried the Young name for 34 years. The Young Auditorium, which opened on the UW-Whitewater campus in 1993, was also constructed with donations that included significant assistance from the Young foundation.

The approximate $6 million addition and renovation currently underway is being funded by over $2,300,000 in donations, library reserves of $840,000 and a $3,000,000 commitment from the city.

The Irvin L. Young Memorial Library is a member of the Bridges Library system of Jefferson and Waukesha Counties. The other libraries in the system are named as follows: