Spotlight on Tom F. Young, BA’65, and Jane C. Pickens Young, BA’66

Story by Jenny Drastura

Tom Young had been encouraged as a high school student in St. Marys, W.Va., to come to Marshall by then Congressman Ken Hechler, who had been a Marshall professor. “He was right,” Tom said. “I enjoyed the programs and life in Huntington. It was in my junior year that I went on a ‘Travel, Work and Learn’ Program to Europe. German Professor Walter Perl and Spanish Professor Harold Murphy took us to Germany and Spain. That was my first formative experience in foreign lands and culture. I never looked back.”

Young went on to become a foreign area officer and military intelligence specialist in the U.S. Army and spent more than 20 years in foreign lands. “Marshall’s academic, social and cultural programs provided both my wife, Jane, and me with the necessary knowledge and background to be very successful in our respective areas of endeavor.”

Tom and Jane had grown up together in St. Marys, attending grade school and high school together. “We qualify as high school sweethearts,” Tom laughed. Jane’s teaching degree enabled her to teach business education in many schools along the way, including in Ohio and Fairfax, Va., where their two children, Curtis and Ali, were born. Most recently, Jane, also from St. Marys, was the director of the Pleasants County Community Foundation. She has joined Tom overseas whenever she could.

Over the years the Youngs have lived in Germany, Beirut, Jerusalem, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Sarajevo. In the summer of 1976 Tom was kidnapped by militia in Lebanon, but released unharmed. In 1991-93, as a colonel, he was assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Amman, Jordan, as the defense attaché and security assistance chief. “We had a wonderful home and experience in Amman. I was an advisor to the current king Abdullah of Jordan, who at the time was a brigadier general in the Jordanian Army. Our official position gave us a unique capability and insight into the peoples and leaders of that beautiful country. We made many friends during our Middle East days.”

After retiring as a full colonel from the U.S. Army in 1996, Tom was not ready to slow down. His 31 years in the military prepared him for a second career as a defense consultant with several defense contractors. “Currently I am assisting the government of Bosnia-Herzegovina in building a new, combined Ministry of Defense and single Armed Forces. My contribution is in helping to establish a new Military Intelligence Branch of Service, organizations and functions.”

“Jane and I loved our experiences at Marshall” Tom said. “We were Greeks, Jane an Alpha Xi and I was a Lambda Chi. We enjoyed the expanded experience of being part of a fraternal society at Marshall: the Mother’s Day Sing, participation as wanna-be-athletes in the Intramural Sports Program. I was a freshman the year Marshall became a university. Jane and I still talk about the greatest pizzas ever made, Monte’s Pizza, and we were patrons of Wiggins. I spent many, many “quarters” at the El Gato Bar and Grill – long gone.

“We both value our experience with Marshall academics,” Tom added. “I loved history, political science and philosophy. I am confident that my successful academic endeavors later in life at the University of Maryland, Harvard and other schools were immeasurably enhanced by tough professors such as “The Bear” Dr. Herschel Health and his sidekick, professor of the “civil war” Dr. Charles H. Moffatt.”