Richard Young, 92, International Lawyer

VAN HORNESVILLE, NY - Richard Young, an international lawyer who did pioneering legal work for the Arabian-American Oil Company (ARAMCO) in its development of the oil fields of Saudi Arabia, died November 18 at his home here. He was 92.

His death was confirmed by Marion Roach Smith, a family friend.

Richard Young was a son of Owen D. Young, one of the most prominent Americans of his time, author in the late 1920s of the Young Plan for the settlement of German liabilities after World War I, chairman of the General Electric Co. founder-chairman of the Radio Corporation of America, and much discussed as a Democratic candidate for president of the United States in the election of 1932.

Richard Young was educated at the Choate School in Wallingford, CT, St. Lawrence University in Canton NY, and, after service in the US Army intelligence unit during World War II, at Harvard Law School, graduating in 1947. Following a few years as assistant to Judge Manley Hudson, he was in private practice for 30 years, much of it spent in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, working on legal relationships between the American company and the Saudi government.

A specialist in international law, Richard Young was a member of the United. States State Department advisory committee on the Law of the Sea, and was an advisor to the U. S. delegation to the United Nations Law of the Sea Conference in 1976-77. He was a member of the executive board of the Law of the Sea Institute at the University of Hawaii, and appeared often before the World Court at The Hague on matters pertaining to sea law,

In this central New York hamlet, generations of the Young family have been community leaders. To that end, Mr. Young for many years ran the Van Hornesville Community Corporation, founded by his father for the "well-being and well-doing of the people of Van Hornesville." At his death he was a director-emeritus of the VHCC.
An accomplished writer, Mr. Young was the author of many articles for legal journals, and was on the board of editors of The American Journal of International Law and The International Lawyer.

In academic activities, from 1962 to 1970 he was a consultant at the Naval War College in Newport, RI, and later served as adjunct professor at the College of Law of Syracuse University. He was elected a trustee of St. Lawrence in 1969, was awarded an honorary degree in 1988, and became an emeritus trustee in 1989. He married a fellow trustee, Janet Nevins, in 1971. She died in 1990.

On his graduation from Harvard Law in 1947, Richard Young wrote a letter to his father, which included the following, paraphrased somewhat:

"So many fathers bungle things...they fuss and fidget and try to coerce (their sons) into some pattern they think is right. That you've never done; my habits of mind were guided, but never forced...It's one of the best examples of the disarming influence of tolerance I know...It's funny, how ideas on these things (similarities of thought) have created themselves in my mind, almost unconsciously, without preaching of sanctimoniousness. That's your doing."

Mr. Young left no immediate survivors, but more than 90 nieces, nephews, grandnieces and nephews. The numbers are imprecise because a few pregnancies have not reached full term.

(Editor’s Note: Marion Roach Smith is a daughter of Janet Nevins Young’s best friend. Before she died in 1990, Janet asked Marion to help Dick as he grew older, and that she did, faithfully and with much love.)