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Editor's note: This obituary was drawn from one published in the Santa Fe New Mexican.
Rev. Paul D. Young died after a brief illness Nov. 25, 2009, in Washington, DC. Born Jan. 13, 1926, Houston, he worked a year for his father's woodworking business after high school and then declared his intention to be a Presbyterian minister.
He graduated from Davidson College in 1950 and Yale Divinity School in 1955. In 1978 he earned a D. Min. from McCorkmick Theological Seminary. Pastorates included Webster (TX) Presbyterian, organizing pastor of Trinity (Denton, TX) Presbyterian, and Central (Waco, TX) Presbyterian. He then served as executive presbyter of Palo Duro Presbytery.
In all four of the positions he served, Young established supportive contact and sometimes organizational structures to assist black and Hispanic individuals and groups attain their rights in society. Young retired in 1988 and moved to Santa Fe, NM, in 1990 where he volunteered for the Santa Fe Opera.
Before graduating college he served from 1946 to 1949 as a volunteer in mission in Puerto Rico and became fluent in Spanish. There he met and married another volunteer in mission, Ann Mary Shaffer. In addition to working in construction and animal husbandry in Puerto Rico, he formed two worshipping communities and preached in Spanish each Sunday evening.
Since September 2000, Young has been a member of Lutheran Church of the Servant, adjacent to the Kingston Residence, where he and Mary Frances, his second wife, moved in 2003 and where she died in 2004.
He was predeceased by his wife of 31 years, Ann Mary (Shaffer) Young; his wife of 22 years, Mary Frances (Allen) Young; and his daughter, Linda Allen Bagley. He is survived by daughter, Gay Young and husband Karim Nashashibi of Bethesda, MD; son, William Andrew Young of Houston, TX; son, Thomas H. Allen, III of Wichita Falls, TX; many grandchildren, great-grandchildren and other family including his companion Bobbi Yauger.
His memorial service will be held 10 a.m. Dec. 5 at Lutheran Church of the Servant in Santa Fe. Memorial gifts may be directed to Lutheran Church of the Servant, 2481 Legacy Court, Santa Fe, NM 87507, the Santa Fe Opera, Box 2408, Santa Fe, NM 87504-2408, or the Hospice Center, 1400 Chama St., Santa Fe, NM 87505.
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[anonymous] said at 9:16 a.m. on December 2, 2009, 9:16 a.m.
Our thoughts and prayers attend Paul's family and colleagues who served with hi over the years. For Texas Presbyterians what is of particular historical interest is the documentation of the start up days of the Palo Duro Presbytery both before PDP came into existence and its first years of operation in his Doctor of Ministry major project entitled "A Clergy Recruitment System For Palo Duro Union Presbytery." I was appreciative of being named by Paul along with Elder Betty Hurt and the Rev. Murray Travis, in the acknowledgment, as ones to whom he was indebted as the first Chairs of the Commission on Ministerial Care, now known as the Committee on Ministry, in the development of this system. Paul used to say , that, it was the best Presbytery in both denominations i.e. the PC(USA) and the PC(US) /s/ Bob Nicholson