SHREWSBURY – Isabelle Chang of Shrewsbury opened her door today to find a group of Shrewsbury Police officers to wish her a happy birthday. The officers delivered a happy birthday card and a cupcake with a candle shaped as a number one.
Chang, the former director of the Shrewsbury Public Library, turned 100 years old this week.
Chang, the fifth of nine children, was born in Boston and raised in Chinatown. She graduated from Simmons College in 1946 with a Bachelor of Science in Library Science. She entered a Master’s degree program at Yale University, but did not finish the program after meeting Min-Chueh (MC) Chang, who would become her husband. They would have three children.
The couple moved to Shrewsbury in 1948. MC joined Clark University in 1951 and later became a researcher at the Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology. He made critical contributions to the development of the oral contraceptive (birth control pill) and other discoveries in reproductive biology. He also published nearly 350 scientific papers, including early studies on in vitro fertilization.
Isabelle told the Community Advocate in 2018 that, “MC should have won the Nobel Prize for his work on the pill. People should remember him, and they don’t.”
Isabelle was a Shrewsbury Public Library trustee before accepting the library director position in 1964. In 1969, she took a position with Shrewsbury Public Schools. She led the set-up of the libraries at the middle school and high school. She also earned a Master’s of Arts in Psychology at Anna Maria College in 1982.
Isabelle retired at age 82 after the death of her husband in 1991. She has since authored multiple books, including several on Chinese cooking.
See images from the visit Isabelle received from police in Shrewsbury, and a recent interview with Shrewsbury Media Connection, below.
