[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 5 (Monday, January 26, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Page S242]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        WILLIAM T. YOUNG TRIBUTE

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I rise today to honor the life of a 
prominent Kentuckian, successful businessman, and devoted 
philanthropist, William T. Young. I would also like to take this 
opportunity to extend my condolences to his two children, William T. 
Young, Jr. and Lucy Young Hamilton, and to all of those who knew and 
loved him.
  Mr. Young graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1939, 
receiving a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. After 
graduation, he went on to serve in the U.S. Army during World War II, 
returning home to Lexington as a major. In 1946 Mr. Young married Lucy 
Maddox, and later had two children.
  After he married Lucy, Mr. Young decided to make his longtime 
entrepreneurial dreams a reality by starting Big Top Peanut Butter, 
which he sold in 1955 to Proctor and Gamble who later renamed it Jif. 
In 1958 he opened a moving and storage company, W.T. Young Storage Co., 
and started Lexington Cartage, a shipping operation. Mr. Young was also 
appointed to the board of Kentucky Fried Chicken at this time and to 
the Royal Crown Co. Board, which he became chairman of in 1966.
  Mr. Young, a true Kentuckian, became a horseman in his later days 
turning a small parcel of land into Overbrook Farms. This 2,400-acre 
breeding operation trained Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes 
winners, as well as breeding the Nation's leading stallion, Storm Cat. 
However successful Young became, he never forgot his roots and his home 
of Lexington, giving back to the community a hundred times over.
  Mr. Young's generosity long exceeds the list of his business 
achievements. He gave much to higher education in Kentucky, 
particularly to two institutions in Lexington--the University of 
Kentucky and Transylvania University. His proudest donation was to UK 
for the building of a state-of-the-art library, which now bears his 
name. At Transylvania University, Young started the Thomas Jefferson 
Scholars, one of the Nation's first merit-based scholarships, which the 
University later renamed after him. Besides donating his money, Mr. 
Young also donated his time to the institutions. He served on the 
Council of Higher Education, Board of Curators at Transylvania, 
University of Kentucky Board of Trustees, and the UK Development 
Council.
  He will forever be remembered through the many contributions he made 
to his community and through the many stories his friends and family 
tell of an ambitious gentleman whose humble heart never stopped giving. 
Charles L. Shearer, the president of Transylvania University, tells a 
story of Mr. Young declining a nomination for a fundraising award given 
by the university. Mr. Young explained, ``If other people had my 
resources, they would do the same thing.'' UK Dean of Libraries Carol 
Diedrichs discussed how Mr. Young would walk through the library 
stopping to talk to the students, asking them how they were doing and 
how their studies were going. Former Kentucky Gov. John Y. Brown 
described Mr. Young as ``closest to the perfect human being I've ever 
known.''
  William T. Young's generosity stretched far across the Nation and far 
into the hearts of all those who met him. I ask each of my colleagues 
to join me today in paying tribute to William T. Young, for all he has 
done. He will be missed.

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