Dr. Richard A. YOUNG

YOUNG, SMITH, WALTON, ETHINGTON, JOHNSON, OLSON

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 9/30/2006 at 09:41:17

Dr. Richard Young came to Clarion as a young doctor and made this his home. He was instrumental in bringing a hospital to the community and spent many years helping make Clarion a wonderful place to live and raise a family. He served twice as Grand Marshal of the Festival in the Park parade, an event he helped organize that will celebrate its 26th year in June. His work on the Gazebo and on the Depot provided facilities that are Clarion landmarks.

Richard A. Young, 85, of Clarion, died Saturday, April 2, 2005 at the Wright Medical Center in Clarion. Funeral services were hedl at 1:00 p.m., Wednesday at the United Methodist Church in Clarion with Pastor Don Morrison officiating. There was a private family burial at the Glenwood Cemetery in Goldfield.

Richard A. Young was born July 18, 1919 to Mary Leona Johnson Young and Howard Augustus Young at Ames. His father was a barber in Ames all his life and his mother was a tailor, housekeeper and baby-sitter. Young's first job was digging dandelions for five cents a bushel. He also swept his father's barbershop and stocked produce in a grocery store. At the age of 12, he started delivering newspapers and magazines and won a contest in 1933 by acquiring new subscribers to the Des Moines Register and Tribune. The prize was a one-half hour ride over Ames in an autogyro. Also in 1933, he and a friend hitchhiked to the Chicago World's Exposition, sleeping in fields in sleeping bags along the way. Starting at the age of fifteen, he worked in house construction, including plumbing and wiring, but mostly concrete and masonry. He poured basements, sidewalks, and driveways before the age of Ready-Mix, so it was all mixed on the job site. He graduated from the Ames High School in 1937 and started Pre-Med at Iowa State University that fall. He graduated from ISU in 1940 and started medical school at the University of Iowa. He went to the U of I year-round and graduated in October of 1943. He continued construction work all through college and medical school. Young moved to Des Moines to intern at the Methodist Hospital, specializing in anesthesiology and family practice, where he met Betty Lou Olson, of Goldfield, who was in nursing at Methodist Hospital. They married on January 28, 1945 on her family farm outside of Goldfield. To this union were born two daughters and a son. He practiced medicine in Des Moines until April 1, 1947 when they moved to Clarion. He and fellow University of Iowa graduate, Robert Eaton bought out the practice of Drs. Tompkins and Walker on Central Avenue. He served in the Korean War from July 1952 to July 1954, earning a fellowship in Psychology at Fort Sam Houston, and then was stationed at Fort Dix where he served in the mental health field. He and Dr. Eaton spearheaded the campaign to build a modern hospital in Clarion in 1949. That resulted in the Clarion Community Memorial Hospital being built in November 1951. The practice, which by then included Dr. Charles Hawkins and Dr. Robert McCool, moved to their new clinic on First Street S.E. in 1956. Dr. Young retired for the first time when he was 65. That retirement lasted less than a year. He was called back to open and run two satellite clinics in Kanawha and Dows. He retired a second time at age 75. He was called back to work again to take over the clinic in Eagle Grove and incorporated it into the Clarion Clinic. He was always interested in Clarion and its citizens. He was proud of his work on planning and building the gazebo in Gazebo Park, his work on restoring the Rock Island Depot, and the development and growth of the Clarion Clinic and the hospital. He was also proud of the cabin he built, with the help of many good friends, in Arkansas. He loved going there, sitting on the deck, watching birds and listening to the music. When asked last year what made him proudest in his life, he responded by saying, "I did the best I could. I have high regard for Clarion and the surrounding communities and all the people I have been privileged to meet."

He is survived by his wife, Betty Lou of Clarion; daughter, Sally Smith of Dodge Center, Minnesota; daughter, Kathleen Walton and husband, Robert of Englewood, Colorado; and his son, John Young and wife, Dianne of Minnetonka, Minnesota; five grandchildren; and one great-granddaughter. His parents and a sister, Gwen Ethington, preceded him in death.

April 7, 2005
© Wright County Monitor 2005