Mr. Richard Arlen Young

Richard (Rick) Arlen Young, 82, passed away at his residence in Columbia, SC on Thursday, December 7, 2023. He was born in Carbondale, WV on June 10, 1941, one of six children born to Sabine and Marjorie Elizabeth Tackett Young. Throughout life, Rick often recounted lessons learned from his coal-mining family in rural West Virginia, from Sunday School at the Carbondale Baptist Church, and from the neighboring public schools he attended, including Montgomery High School. Rick served four years in the U.S. Navy as an electronic technician. Much of his service was aboard the submarine Sirago, SS 485. Following his honorable discharge from the Navy, Rick completed a bachelor’s degree in industrial management from the West Virginia Institute of Technology and pursued graduate study in the same field at Clemson University. Much of his career was spent in computer technology management and sales positions with some of the most prominent pioneers in American technology, including RCA, Digital Systems, and Burrough’s Corporation. Rick was an avid learner and a person with wide-ranging interests and abilities. He was an outstanding high school football player, loved playing golf, and had a passion for running. He was skilled in woodworking, a master carpenter, and a designer and fabricator of many home improvement projects. He strived for excellence in all that he undertook, whether it be conducting sales and marketing training sessions, crafting furniture, striking golf balls, grilling steaks, mixing martinis, or driving Greyhound buses. As a Greyhound driver during college, he enjoyed telling friends that he was “their best driver” while sharing safety tips learned in “bus-driving” school. Beneath it all, Rick was a humble, yet confident, capable, and compassionate person, who deeply loved his family and his country. Rick was preceded in death by his parents, by brothers Sabine, Patrick, and William Young, and by infant sister Loretta Young. He is survived by his high school sweetheart, Mary Ann Hamblin Young, with whom he shared 64 years of marriage; two wonderful sons: Dana Patrick Young of Franklin, TN and Dr. Bradley Hamblin Young of Columbia, SC; four grandchildren: Kathryn Taylor Young and Nathan Hamblin Young from Tennessee and Lillian Marion Young and Brady Hamblin Young of Lexington, SC.; and brother Larry Allan Young of Chesapeake, VA. The family will receive friends for fellowship from 5 until 7 o'clock on Tuesday, December 12th, at Shives Funeral Home, Trenholm Road Chapel, 7600 Trenholm Road Ext., Columbia, SC.

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Mr. Richard Arlen Young

June 10, 1941 - December 7, 2023