Reverend Doctor Gregory B. Young painting the door of the church

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Reverend Doctor Gregory B. Young, the pastor of the United Methodist Church at New Brunswick, had the church doors painted scarlet red: “I want the church to begin to show a more solid connection to New Brunswick and Rutgers.”

Photography: 
Nick Romanenko

For more than 35 years, the Reverend Doctor Gregory B. Young has been an ordained minister of the United Methodist Church, serving communities throughout New Jersey and, for the past six years, the United Methodist Church at New Brunswick, where he is the pastor—and where he was baptized as a month-old baby, confirmed as a teenager, and received his calling to be an ordained minister.

But the other good work that Young RC’76 used to do before his calling—painting houses for his dad’s business while attending Rutgers—came in handy this summer when Young happily inspected the painting of the front doors of his church. The color? Scarlet red, of course (right down to matching official university color specifications).

“I want the church to begin to show a more solid connection to New Brunswick and Rutgers,” he says. “It helps to graphically show that we see ourselves as part of the city and the university. The new color helps to make the church more visible and alive.”

In a career rich in experience, Young says his five years as a member of the Rutgers University Glee Club remain some of the most important years of his life. “Creating beautiful and meaningful music with your peers is something words cannot capture,” he says. The singing group performed at colleges and universities and toured Europe to sing in villages and cities, and it continues to connect past members with current performers in a fraternity known as “Glee Bags,” whose anthem remains “Brothers, Sing On!” One other benefit of the Glee Club? Young met his wife of 36 years, Cindy (Roos) DC’78, who was singing with the Rutgers Women’s Chorale during a joint performance at Voorhees Chapel. “We continue to make beautiful music together,” he says.