At 94, he’s ‘Mr. Music of United Methodism’

Most afternoons, the Rev. Carlton R. “Sam” Young spends a few hours in the upstairs office of the Nashville, Tennessee, home he occupies with his wife of 74 years, Marjorie Lindner Young.

If he has a text to set music to, he makes a double-spaced copy, marks all the accents, then reads the words aloud with emphasis.

“The rhythm comes up from the page and with it, invariably, comes a melody,” Young said. “It just happens. I can’t explain it.”

Within church music, Young has been a big name for more than half a century as a composer, arranger, scholar, editor. 

He edited The Methodist Hymnal (1966) and The United Methodist Hymnal (1989). He directed the music for nine General Conferences, including the 1968 Uniting Conference that created The United Methodist Church.

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