Robert John "Bob" YOUNG

Enid News and Eagle Enid, Garfield Co., OK

07-22-2009

Submitted by: Jo Aguirre

Funeral service for Robert John "Bob" Young, 81, will be 11 a.m. Friday, July 24, 2009, at Brown-Cummings Funeral Home Chapel with Pastor Debbie Bourland officiating. Graveside service will be 9:30 a.m. in Memorial Park Cemetery under the direction of Brown-Cummings Funeral Home. Full military graveside rites will be conducted by the United States Army. Bob was born in Enid on Feb. 20, 1928, to Chester and Beverly Young and died Friday, July 10, 2009, at Ridgecrest Nursing and Rehabilitation in Deland, Fla.

He lived briefly in Carmen and Fairview before moving to Enid. He attended Enid primary schools until entering secondary school in the Kentucky Military Institute in Lyndon, Ky., and Venice, Fla. Bob graduated from Virginia Military Institute with a degree in biology in 1954 and was commissioned in the U.S. Army Artillery Corps. He served in active duty for two years during the Korean War and continued as a reserve officer, retiring as lieutenant colonel in 1988. Bob returned to Enid after active military service and attended Phillips University and then the University of Oklahoma, where he earned a master's degree in general biology. While at OU, he was a member of Beta Theta Pi social fraternity. Mr. Young worked 32 years as a biologist for the U.S. government. He was one of the original environmentalists, joining the Environmental Protection Agency as a project manager when it was formed in 1971.

After retiring from government service, Bob moved to Virginia Beach, Va., and then to Deland, Fla. He and his sister, Joan Young Harper, were partners in the family business, Young Valley Farms. He never forgot his roots in Enid — he supported Enid Symphony Orchestra, Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center and Sons and Daughters of the Cherokee Strip. Mr. Young was a man of many interests. He was a lifelong student and fluent in the international language of Esperanto. He attended numerous Elderhostel courses throughout the world. He was a lover and supporter of the arts with special interest in classic movies. Bob was a member of Friends of the Circus, an interest that began as a cadet at KMI, whose winter campus in Florida was adjacent to the Ringling Brothers winter quarters.

Mr. Young is survived by his sister, Joan Young Harper of Enid; his nephew, BG (U.S. Army-retired) Gil Harper of Charleston, S.C.; his niece, Nancy Harper Hockemeier of Skillman, N.J.; their spouses, Kris and Curt; and six great-nieces and nephews.