Don Young Biography Quotes 15 Report mistakes

Early Life
Donald Edwin Young was born on June 9, 1933, in Meridian, California. Raised in a rural setting, he developed an affinity for the outdoors and hard work that later defined his public image. After high school he pursued studies in education, attending Yuba College and Chico State College, and served in the U.S. Army in the mid-1950s. The promise and challenge of the Far North drew him westward; in 1959, the year Alaska became a state, he moved to the Yukon Flats region and made Fort Yukon his home.

Alaska and Entry into Public Service
In Fort Yukon, Young taught school, worked in river transportation on the Yukon River, and took on seasonal jobs that introduced him to the realities of small, remote communities. The needs of his neighbors and the frontier spirit of the place pulled him into civic affairs. He became mayor of Fort Yukon and learned the practical side of governance: keeping basic services running, fighting for infrastructure, and forging relationships with tribal leaders, village councils, and state agencies.

State Legislature
Young entered the Alaska House of Representatives in 1967, representing a vast rural district where airstrips, barge landings, and subsistence hunting were everyday concerns. He moved to the Alaska Senate in 1971. In Juneau he built a reputation for blunt talk and relentless attention to local issues, especially transportation, energy, and education in remote communities. Those years also connected him with statewide figures he would later work alongside in Washington, including U.S. Senator Ted Stevens and governors and legislators across the political spectrum.

U.S. House of Representatives
The path to Congress opened unexpectedly. In 1972, Alaska's at-large U.S. Representative, Nick Begich, disappeared in a plane crash. After the seat was declared vacant, Young won the 1973 special election and began a congressional tenure that would last until his death in 2022. A Republican, he won reelection again and again in a state that valued seniority and a forceful advocate. He became the longest-serving representative in Alaska's history and, ultimately, the longest-serving Republican in House history.

Leadership and Committee Chairmanships
Young's influence in Washington rested on long service and mastery of committee work. He chaired the House Committee on Resources (later known as Natural Resources) in the mid-1990s and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure in the early 2000s. In those roles he was central to national debates over land management, energy development, fisheries policy, surface transportation, and water resources. He helped craft and pass major transportation reauthorization bills, including TEA-21 and SAFETEA-LU, and was a key voice on Coast Guard, aviation, and highway policy. His tenure spanned presidents from Richard Nixon to Joe Biden and Speakers from Tip O'Neill to Nancy Pelosi, and he became Dean of the House, the chamber's most senior member, in 2017.

Advocacy for Alaska
Young approached policy through Alaska's lens: a vast land with sparse population, difficult geography, and extraordinary natural resources. He was an early and enduring supporter of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline and consistently pressed for responsible oil and gas development, including drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. He worked on reauthorizations of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, arguing for sustainable fisheries and strong enforcement to protect North Pacific stocks and coastal economies. He championed roads, ports, airstrips, sanitation systems, and rural broadband, often in partnership with Alaska's senators, notably Ted Stevens, Lisa Murkowski, and Dan Sullivan. He emphasized the needs of Alaska Native villages and corporations, advocating self-determination, public safety, and jobs while engaging with tribal leaders and regional organizations.

Controversies and Political Style
Young's style was combative, plainspoken, and unapologetically parochial. He embraced earmarks as a legitimate tool to direct federal funds to isolated places, a stance that generated national controversy during the debate over a proposed bridge in Southeast Alaska. Supporters said he delivered essential infrastructure to communities the market would never reach; critics charged excess. He also faced ethics scrutiny at times, including a House Ethics Committee admonishment that led him to repay funds and apologize. Through it all he cultivated a reputation as a dealmaker who could be blunt one moment and pragmatic the next, trading on personal relationships and his deep knowledge of parliamentary procedure.

Personal Life
Alaska shaped not only Young's politics but also his family life. He married Lu Young, a central presence in his career and community work, and together they raised two daughters, Joni and Dawn. Lu's death in 2009 was a profound personal loss. In 2015 he married Anne Garland Walton, a nurse whose support accompanied him through his final campaigns. Friends and colleagues often noted that the rhythm of his life ran between Washington and Alaska: votes and hearings in the capital, then long trips home to town halls, fish camps, and listening sessions with mayors, village councils, and regional leaders. His relationships with figures such as Ted Stevens, Lisa Murkowski, and Dan Sullivan anchored an Alaska congressional team that often coordinated strategy on energy, fisheries, and infrastructure.

Final Years and Legacy
Well into his eighties, Young continued to campaign vigorously and to advocate for roads, ports, and resource development. He kept his committee assignments focused on transportation, natural resources, and Native affairs and leaned on veteran staff and allies to navigate shifting House rules and priorities. He died on March 18, 2022, at age 88, while traveling, closing a congressional career just short of half a century. Tributes poured in from across the aisle, with leaders in both parties recalling a formidable legislator who put Alaska first, and with Alaska's delegation, including Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, reflecting on decades of partnership. His legacy rests in the tangible projects that knit remote communities to the broader economy, the institutional memory he carried as Dean of the House, and the imprint of a political life that bridged California roots and an adopted state that became his home and his cause.

Our collection contains 15 quotes who is written by Don, under the main topics: Wisdom - Freedom - Nature - Science - Embrace Change.