Daniel Young was a quiet and thoughtful man whom we were blessed to have as a member of Pima Monthly Meeting. He was a very intelligent man who had strong beliefs, but he was able to discuss things in a gentle way that let you know his opinion, while also letting you know that he would listen to yours. As a member of the Clearness Committee for Membership and Marriage, Dan could get to the heart of a discussion and help the group come up with good plans for how to proceed.
On a personal level, Dan accepted people for who they were and valued their friendship. He always looked you in the face and would smile with his eyes! He loved his wife Joy so very much and always wanted to be with her. Dan and Joy spent a lot of time reaching out to members of the meeting who needed help or support. They were truly good about visiting and keeping in touch with Friends who were sick or unable to come to Meeting.
Daniel Test Young was born a birthright Quaker on August 21, 1923 in Kansas City, Missouri to Mildred Binns Young and Wilmer Job Young. When he was two he was with his parents in Poland as they worked with American Friends Service Committee for a boys’ orphanage there. He returned with them to Westtown School, in West Chester, PA, where his father taught math and physics and was Dean of Boys. Dan attended Westtown School for all of his elementary education through eighth grade. He described Westtown campus as an “idyllic” place for him and his younger siblings Gretka and Bill to grow up.
In the middle of the Depression in 1936, Dan moved with his family to Mississippi as they took up voluntary poverty to help work with sharecroppers at the Delta Cooperative Farm. After attending public high school in Mississippi for one year, Daniel returned to Westtown School for years 10 through 12. He continued his Friends education at Guilford College, living with President and Mrs. Milner in exchange for yard work and acting as their chauffeur. During World War II, Daniel, a conscientious objector, was drafted and entered into Civilian Public Service (CPS), serving as a night watchman, cooking, and maintaining trails at Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Planning toward medical school, Dan asked to transfer to the New Hampshire State Mental Hospital, where he worked as an orderly.
After CPS, Daniel attended a two year program at University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Medicine, transferring to Harvard to complete his medical education. After completing his training in cardiology, he began his career as a professor of medicine and a practicing cardiologist at the UNC Chapel Hill School of Medicine, where he remained until retiring in 1990.
In 1949, he married his first wife, the late Maria Alston Young. They had three children, John, Nancy and Maria (Rie). They were active in the American Civil Liberties Union, protesting the Vietnam War and working for civil rights. At the same time, Dan served on the board of the American Friends Service Committee, SE Region for six years. After his first marriage ended in divorce, Dan married Joy Carder in 1979, adding to his family her two children, Heather and Travis.
Dan was an avid sailor. In 1983 Dan and Joy undertook a five year project building their 27’ sailboat. They enjoyed sailing it at the North Carolina coast for many years. Besides sailing, Dan loved to bike, garden, hike, canoe, build furniture, and was also an avid reader.
In 1983, Dan continued to pursue his convictions for peace and social concerns by becoming a member of the board of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR). He worked with this board for 10 years, serving as its president in 1991. During Dan’s years with PSR, he and Joy did a great deal of international travel to countries such as Japan, Finland, and Kazakhstan, as well as to other parts of Europe and what was then the Soviet Union. In 1995, and again in 1997, Dan and Joy continued working for world peace by traveling to Nicaragua and Guatemala with Witness for Peace.
After Dan and Joy retired in 1990 they traveled extensively in the US, Canada and Mexico in their motor home, seeing wonderful sights and visiting friends and family.
Through the years, Daniel has been a member of several different Friends Meetings. First his family belonged to Westtown Meeting (PA). Later he joined Chapel Hill Monthly Meeting (NC), and most recently, after moving to Tucson in 2004, he transferred his membership to Pima Monthly Meeting (AZ). (Interestingly, for several decades in the middle 1900’s Dan’s grandparents, Arthur and Tacey Binns, were also a part of what later became the Tucson Friends Meeting.) Dan served on the Committee for Clearness for Membership and Marriage, and together Dan and Joy did pastoral care under Ministry and Oversight. They also clerked the Kitchen Committee and helped with homeless hospitality.
Dan left this world peacefully on October 25, 2012 at the age of 89. He is survived by his wife Joy Carder Young of Tucson, AZ, his children John Young, Nancy Young, Rie Young Jones and husband Larry Jones, Heather McCabe Lutz and husband David Lutz, and his grandchildren Alex and Erik Lutz, his sister Gretka Young Wolfe and husband Ralph Wolfe and brother William Young. He was preceded in death by his first wife Maria Alston Young and his stepson Travis McCabe.
Dan’s soft spoken manner and gentle soul touched all who knew him throughout the years. His presence is deeply missed.