Johnny Young was born on February 6, , [ 1 ] in Savannah, Georgia. His mother died in January , [ 2 ] after which he and a sister were raised by a paternal aunt, Lucille Pressey. John the Baptist in Savannah, Georgia. The three of them moved to Philadelphia on the charity of a Catholic nun, arriving there on July 4, Soon thereafter, Young and his sister moved in with other family in Wilmington, Delaware for four years before he returned to Philadelphia and made it his hometown.
There he continued to live with family, [ 3 ] in poverty. Young married Angelena Clark around , [ 2 ] and by November 22, , the two were expecting their first child. Young graduated Vare Junior High School in Inspired by the international trip, [ 2 ] he received his Bachelor of Science magna cum laude from the Fox School of Business and Management at Temple University in , [ 5 ] "[d]etermined to work overseas". Young's first job was working in retail for Thal Berenholtz, a French Jew who had fled the Holocaust ; the older man had such professional and cultural influence on the teenager, that Young later had him present upon the swearing-in of all his ambassadorships.
From into the s, Young worked as a junior accountant for the government of Philadelphia. Young joined the United States Foreign Service as an officer in For two years he was the supervisory general services officer in Conakry , Guinea [ 7 ] during Portugal 's Operation Green Sea [ 4 ] before doing the same in Nairobi , Kenya from β Bureau of Personnel and Office of the Inspector General.
From to , Young was an ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary. Ransom ; when Young left, Ronald E. Neumann filled his role the following month. After his retirement from government service, Young worked as a consultant , a lecturer , and the executive director of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops ' Migration and Refugee Services Division from through at least In , Young also self-published the autobiographical From The Projects to the Palace: A Diplomat's Unlikely Journey from the Bottom to the Top ; printed by Xlibris , it tells Young's story from childhood through his diplomatic career.
After his retirement, Young was a member of St. Augustine Catholic Church in Washington, D. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikidata item. American diplomat β US State Department photo of Young Bill Clinton George W. Early life [ edit ]. Education [ edit ]. Career [ edit ]. Foreign Service [ edit ]. Post-retirement [ edit ]. References [ edit ].
