Owen D. Young

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Owen Young
Young, 1928
Born(1874-10-27)October 27, 1874
Stark, New York, U.S.
DiedJuly 11, 1962(1962-07-11) (aged 87)
St. Augustine, Florida, U.S.
EducationSt. Lawrence University (BA)
Boston University (LLB)
Political partyDemocratic

Owen D. Young (October 27, 1874 – July 11, 1962) was an American

industrialist, businessman, lawyer and diplomat at the Second Reparations Conference (SRC) in 1929, as a member of the German Reparations International Commission.[1]

He is known for the plan to settle Germany's World War I reparations, known as the Young Plan and for the creation of the Radio Corporation of America. Young founded RCA as a subsidiary of General Electric in 1919; he became its first chairman and continued in that position until 1929. RCA was divested in 1932 and liquidated by GE in 1986.

Early life and family

Owen D. Young was born on October 27, 1874, on a small farmhouse in the village of Van Hornesville, Town of

Protestant Queen Anne in England, sent to New York in 1710 to act to provide naval stores for the British fleet along the Hudson River, and eventually moving north and west, taking land from the Native Americans before settling along the Mohawk
. The ‘D’ in his name was more for adornment than anything else, and so does not stand for anything.

Owen went to school for the first time in the spring of 1881. He was six years old, and had always been inclined to books and studying. He had a teacher, Menzo McEwan, who taught him for years, and would eventually be responsible for Owen going to East Springfield, one of the few secondary schools that he could afford. Of course, it was not too close to Van Hornesville, which had few secondary education opportunities near it. This took him away from the farm, where his help was needed, but his parents supported his pursuit of education to the point of later mortgaging the farm to send him to St. Lawrence University at Canton, New York.[3]

He married Josephine Sheldon Edmonds (1870–1935) on June 13, 1898, in Southbridge, Massachusetts. A few years after Josephine died, he married the fashion designer and businesswoman Louise Powis Clark (1887–1965), a widow with three children.[4]

Children

  • Charles Jacob Young (December 17, 1899 – October 2, 1987), Scientist and inventor at RCA
  • John Young (August 13, 1902 – August 21, 1926), (killed in a train accident)
  • Josephine Young (February 16, 1907 – January 8, 1990), who became a poet and novelist, writing as Josephine Young Case
  • United States Ambassador to the Netherlands
    (1957–1960)
  • Richard Young (June 23, 1919 – November 18, 2011),
    law professor

Education

East Springfield Academy was a small coeducational school and Young greatly enjoyed his time there,[5] making lifelong friends; later in life, he tried to attend all of the reunions. St. Lawrence was a small institute struggling to survive and in serious need of both money and students and Owen Young was a good candidate. It was still expensive enough to cause some hesitance, however. With his father getting on in years, Owen was needed on the farm more than ever. His parents were eventually convinced by the president of the college.

It was there that Young was able to grow as a person in both his education and his faith. He discovered

cum laude
in 1896.

After graduation he joined lawyer Charles H. Tyler and ten years later became a partner in that Boston law firm. They were involved in litigation cases between major companies. During college, he not only became a brother of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, but he also met his future wife Josephine Sheldon Edmonds, an 1886 Radcliffe graduate. He married her in 1898, and she eventually bore him five children.

Career

Young represented

Schenectady. He became GE's president in 1922 and then in the same year was appointed chairman, serving in that position until 1939. Under his guidance and teaming with president Gerard Swope
, GE shifted into the extensive manufacturing of home electrical appliances, establishing the company as a leader in this field and speeding the mass electrification of farms, factories and transportation systems within the US.

Time cover, 23 Feb 1925

In 1919, at the request of the government, he created the

Radio Corporation of America (RCA) to combat the threat of English control over the world's radio communications against America's struggling radio industry. He became its augmentation chairman and served in that position until 1929, helping to establish America's lead in the burgeoning technology of radio, making RCA the largest radio company in the world.[6] In 1928, he was appointed to the board of trustees of the Rockefeller Foundation
under a major reorganization of that institution, serving on that board also up to 1939.

Young's participation in President

Time Magazine's Man of the Year in 1929. The Young Plan collapsed with the coming of the Great Depression
. Young was also instrumental in plans for a state university system in New York. In 1932, he was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination. He did not campaign actively, but his friends promoted his candidacy beginning in 1930 and at the 1932
Alfred E. Smith and Franklin D. Roosevelt
, and some convention observers speculated that they would support Young in the event of a convention deadlock.

Retirement

In 1930, he built the Van Hornesville, New York, Central School in his hometown to consolidate all the small rural schools in the area. In 1963, it was renamed Owen D. Young Central School in his honor. Long active in education, Young was a trustee of St. Lawrence University from 1912 to 1934, serving as president of the board the last 10 years. The main library of the university is named in his honor.

After Young married Louise Powis Clark in 1937, the couple created a winter estate in Florida that included a formal garden and citrus stand along State Road A1A. In 1965, Louise gifted the estate to the State of Florida, and it is now the site of Washington Oaks Gardens State Park.[8]

In 1939, he formally retired to the family farm in New York, where he began dairy farming. He died in Florida on July 11, 1962, following several months of poor health.[1]

Legacy

More than 20 colleges awarded him honorary degrees. He was an elected Member of both the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[9][10] Long interested in education, he was a member of the New York State Board of Regents, governing body of New York's educational system, until 1946. Then, New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey called upon him to head the state commission that laid the groundwork for the State University of New York system. Although the commission represented a wide range of views and opinions, Young achieved a surprising unanimity that resulted in a report containing recommendations adopted by the legislature. He was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 1981 and the Consumer Technology Hall of Fame in 2019.

See also

References and further reading

  • Jones, Kenneth Paul, ed. U.S. Diplomats in Europe, 1919–41 (ABC-CLIO. 1981) online on Young's role in Europe, pp 43–62..
  • Tarbell, Ida M. (1932). Owen D. Young: A new type of industrial leader. Macmillan Company.
    ISBN 978-0-518-19069-1
    .
  • Case, Josephine Young (1982). Owen D. Young and American enterprise: A biography. D.R. Godine.
    ISBN 978-0-87923-360-0
    .
  • Szladits, Lola L. (1974). Owen D. Young. Readex Books.
    ISBN 978-0-87104-253-8
    .
  • Hammond, John Winthrop. Men and Volts, the Story of General Electric, published 1941. Citations: came to Schenectady – 360; Chairman of the Board – 382; retired in 1939 – 394; General Counsel 359,381; Report to Temporary National Economic Committee – 397.

Notes

  1. ^
    New York Times
    . July 12, 1962.
  2. ISBN 978-0-87923-360-0
    .
  3. ^ "Owen D. Young". Past Leaders. General Electrics. Retrieved November 6, 2013.
  4. ^ "Wayne". September 24, 2019.
  5. ISBN 978-0-87923-360-0
    .
  6. ^ Doenecke, Justus D. "Young, Owen D." American National Biography Online. Retrieved October 9, 2013.
  7. ^ "Dawes Plan". encyclopedia.com. August 13, 2018. Retrieved October 21, 2023.
  8. ^ "Washington Oaks State Park". Florida State Parks. Retrieved May 10, 2022.
  9. ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved July 21, 2023.
  10. ^ "Owen D. Young". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. February 9, 2023. Retrieved July 21, 2023.

External links

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Business positions
Preceded by Chairman of General Electric
1922–1940 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Chairman of General Electric
1942–1945
Awards and achievements
Preceded by
Cover of Time

February 23, 1925 		Succeeded by
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