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Johnny Young (diplomat)

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Johnny Young
A portrait photo of a balding black man in front of a US flag; he is wearing spectacles, a tan suit, red tie, and is looking to the camera's right.
US State Department photo of Young (2002)
United States Ambassador to Slovenia
In office
October 24, 2001 (2001-10-24) – September 17, 2004 (2004-09-17)
PresidentGeorge W. Bush
Preceded byNancy Halliday Ely-Raphel
Succeeded byThomas Bolling Robertson
United States Ambassador to Bahrain
In office
December 11, 1997 (1997-12-11) – September 29, 2001 (2001-09-29)
President
Preceded byDavid M. Ransom
Succeeded byRonald E. Neumann
United States Ambassador to Togo
In office
October 7, 1994 (1994-10-07) – November 21, 1997 (1997-11-21)
PresidentBill Clinton
Preceded byHarmon Elwood Kirby
Succeeded byBrenda Schoonover
United States Ambassador to Sierra Leone
In office
November 29, 1989 (1989-11-29) – July 23, 1992 (1992-07-23)
PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush
Preceded byCynthia Shepard Perry
Succeeded byLauralee M. Peters
Personal details
Born(1940-02-06)February 6, 1940
Savannah, Georgia, US
DiedJuly 24, 2021(2021-07-24) (aged 81)
Kensington, Maryland, US
SpouseAngelena Clark
EducationBS, Temple University (1966)
Awards

Johnny Young (February 6, 1940 – July 24, 2021) was an American Foreign Service officer and ambassador who was posted to North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia during his 37 years of service.

Early life

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Johnny Young was born on February 6, 1940,[1] in Savannah, Georgia. His mother died in January 1941,[2] after which he and a sister were raised by a paternal aunt, Lucille Pressey. At age seven, Young was baptised as a Catholic at Cathedral Basilica of St. John the Baptist in Savannah, Georgia.[3]

The three of them moved to Philadelphia on the charity of a Catholic nun, arriving there on July 4, 1947. Soon thereafter, Young and his sister moved in with other family in Wilmington, Delaware for four years before he returned to Philadelphia and made it his hometown. There he continued to live with family,[3] in poverty.[2]

Young married Angelena Clark around 1967,[2] and by November 22, 1970, the two were expecting their first child.[4]

Education

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Young graduated Vare Junior High School in 1954.[3] Despite receiving poor grades on standardized tests, in 1957[2] he received his high-school diploma from Edward Bach Vocational Technical High School.[3]

In the 1960s, Young traveled to Beirut as a delegate from the Philadelphia YMCA. Inspired by the international trip,[2] he received his Bachelor of Science (magna cum laude) from the Fox School of Business and Management at Temple University in 1966,[5] "[d]etermined to work overseas".[4]

Career

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Young's first job was working in retail for Thal Berenholtz, a French Jew who had fled the Holocaust; the older man had such professional and cultural influence on the teenager, that Young later had him present upon the swearing-in of all his ambassadorships.[3]

From 1957 into the 1960s, Young worked as a junior accountant for the government of Philadelphia.[2]

Foreign Service

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Map
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3000km
1,800miles
Ljubljana, Slovenia
Manama, Bahrain
Lomé, Togo
Freetown, Sierra Leone
The Hague, Netherlands
Amman, Jordan
Washington, D.C., US
Bridgetown, Barbados
Doha, Qatar
Nairobi, Kenya
Conakry, Guinea
Antananarivo, Madagascar
Foreign Service assignments (ambassadorships in blue)

Young joined the United States Foreign Service as an officer in 1967.[6] He first worked as a budget and fiscal officer in Antananarivo, Madagascar until 1970. For two years he was the supervisory general services officer in Conakry, Guinea[7] (during Portugal's Operation Green Sea)[4] before doing the same in Nairobi, Kenya from 1972–1974. From Kenya, Young transferred to Doha, Qatar, where he first served as chargé d'affaires. After another overseas assignment to Bridgetown, Barbados, Young returned to the US in 1979 to work in the Foreign Service's Washington, D.C. Bureau of Personnel and Office of the Inspector General. In 1983, Young left the States to serve in Amman, Jordan for two years before moving on to The Hague, Netherlands.[7]

From 1989 to 2004, Young was an ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary.[8] Assigned to Sierra Leone from November 29, 1989 – July 23, 1992, Young succeeded Cynthia Shepard Perry and was himself succeeded by Lauralee M. Peters.[9] Young presented his credentials as Ambassador to Togo on October 7, 1994, taking the office recently left by Harmon Elwood Kirby; when Young left on November 21, 1997, he would be replaced by Brenda Schoonover.[10] As Ambassador to Bahrain (December 11, 1997 to September 29, 2001), Young was filling the shoes of David M. Ransom; when Young left, Ronald E. Neumann filled his role the following month.[11] Young's final ambassadorial assignment was to Slovenia from October 24, 2001 – September 17, 2004; Young took the office after it was vacated by Nancy Halliday Ely-Raphel, and Thomas Bolling Robertson took it from Young[12] after the latter retired.[6]

While working for the Foreign Service, Young participated in Operation Sharp Edge and the evacuation of US civilians in Freetown after Valentine Strasser's coup d'état. He also received performance-based cash awards, a Superior Honor Award, a Meritorious Honor Award, and two Group Honor Awards.[7] On October 12, 2004, Young was appointed a Senior Foreign Service Career Ambassador,[8] one of the few African Americans of his generation to be honored with such.[2]

Post-retirement

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After his retirement from government service, Young worked as a consultant, a lecturer, and the executive director of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Migration and Refugee Services Division from 2007 through at least 2013. In 2013, Young also self-published the autobiographical From The Projects to the Palace: A Diplomat's Unlikely Journey from the Bottom to the Top; printed by Xlibris, it tells Young's story from childhood through his diplomatic career.[6]

After his 2004 retirement, Young was a member of St. Augustine Catholic Church in Washington, D.C.[2] Diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in December 2020,[13] he died at home in Kensington, Maryland on July 24, 2021, survived by his wife and two children.[2]

References

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  1. ^ Lentz III, Harris M. (2006). "Slovenia". American Government Leaders: Major Elected and Appointed Officials, Federal, State and Local, 1776–2005. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. p. 82. ISBN 978-0-7864-2598-3.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Bernstein, Adam (August 6, 2021). "Johnny Young, ambassador to four countries, dies at 81". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. OCLC 2269358. Archived from the original on August 20, 2021. Retrieved August 21, 2021.
  3. ^ a b c d e Kennedy, Charles Stuart (October 21, 2005). Ambassador Johnny Young (PDF). Foreign Affairs Oral History Project. Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 6, 2024.
  4. ^ a b c "Witness History: Portugal Attacks Guinea" (streaming audio). BBC. November 29, 2013. Archived from the original on August 8, 2020. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  5. ^ "Johnny Young". Fox School of Business and Management. Temple University. Archived from the original on August 21, 2021. Retrieved August 21, 2021.
  6. ^ a b c Maitra, Susan B. (2013). "Books by Foreign Service Authors - 2013". American Foreign Service Association. Archived from the original on July 30, 2020. Retrieved August 8, 2020. We are pleased to present this year's roundup of books by members of the Foreign Service community.
  7. ^ a b c "Young, Johnny". United States Department of State. November 9, 2001. Archived from the original on November 28, 2017. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  8. ^ a b "Johnny Young". United States Department of State. Archived from the original on May 28, 2019. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  9. ^ "Chiefs of Mission for Sierra Leone". United States Department of State. Archived from the original on July 22, 2020. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  10. ^ "Chiefs of Mission for Togo". United States Department of State. Archived from the original on January 3, 2020. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  11. ^ "Chiefs of Mission for Bahrain". United States Department of State. Archived from the original on November 18, 2019. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  12. ^ "Chiefs of Mission for Slovenia". United States Department of State. Archived from the original on August 20, 2019. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  13. ^ "Umrl je Johnny Young, nekdanji ameriški veleposlanik v Sloveniji" [Johnny Young, former US ambassador to Slovenia, has died]. Mladina (in Slovenian). July 25, 2021. Archived from the original on July 27, 2021. Retrieved July 27, 2021. Svojo diplomatsko kariero je začel leta 1967, med letoma 2001 in 2004 pa je bil tudi veleposlanik v Sloveniji
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