James Young

James Young was born on September 4, 1957, at an Air Force hospital in Tokyo, Japan and passed away April 8, 2025, after a gallant and painful three-month struggle with Fournier's Gangrene. Things looked minimally hopeful for a long-term recovery, but the wound became reinfected as the doctors had feared and he succumbed to sepsis.

As a "military kid," James attended many schools, including ones in Hawaii, Alabama, and Texas. Once the family settled for good in Georgia, he attended Warner Robins High School and Warner Robins Technical College, then in 1976 joined the United States Navy and served until 1980. Since he could not fulfill his ambition to become a Naval aviator due to nearsightedness, he instead trained as an Aerographer's Mate, producing all-important weather forecasts. His basic training was accomplished at Great Lakes Naval Air Station; later he was stationed at Lakehurst, New Jersey, where, as a history buff, he made certain to visit the site of the Hindenburg disaster. He was also stationed at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and remembers being able to walk to work every day enjoying in the sea breeze.

James ended his working career as a Telephone Support Technician for IBM/Lenovo systems. His early training was on typesetting machines, but he programmed Sperry Unisys systems at Robins Air Force Base before moving to Atlanta after marriage in 1990. His first job in Atlanta was at a model train store, then he was employed at Smyrna Police Distributors/Adventure Outdoors in the warehouse and producing the yearly printed catalog. He later did technical support for Wang systems and DirectPC.

James always tried to live with gusto and humor (he was particularly fond of bad puns). When and what he loved, he did strongly. His first love and constant affinity was aircraft, specifically military aircraft. The F104 Starfighter was the jet aircraft love of his life, but any airplane set his heart soaring. Knowing this, he deliberately bought a t-shirt that proclaimed "I Don't Always Stop And Look at Airplanes--Oh Wait, Yes, I Do." Yes, indeed. He knew them all, too. You could point to an airplane in an old film or TV show and say "Hey, James, what's that plane?" and he could tell you make and model, down to the special features on that particular aircraft.

James was a legacy Star Trek fan and loved science fiction, especially military science fiction and "hard" SF, all his life. His first "grown up" book was Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination when he was of elementary school age. He loved Robert Heinlein, L. Neil Smith, and other classic SF writers. His current favorites were David Weber and Eric Flint, and, oddly, a writer also named James Young (they met at a science fiction convention once and laughed over it). Some of his favorite SF television series were Babylon 5, the other Star Trek sequel (and prequel) series, especially Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks, The Expanse, and For All Mankind. He also loved any reality series to do with flying, especially the Discovery's Flying Wild Alaska, and the classic 1950s aviation series Steve Canyon. Of non-SF, NYPD Blue, Big Bang Theory, Emergency, 9-1-1, and Castle were just a few of the others he enjoyed. The series watched most often was HBO's From the Earth to the Moon; the DVD release made this pretty much a yearly event. He also loved the Star Trek films and the original Star Wars trilogy as well as classics like War of the Worlds, but probably his favorite two movies were ... surprise! ... aviation related: Battle of Britain and Strategic Air Command.

James loved to cook, and could make a delicious meal out of practically nothing. His biscuits were to die for, and he could make a plain old round steak and some seasonings into something infinitely better than Longhorn or Outback. There was still laughter over his single culinary disaster way back in the 1980s, a potluck meal made the day before payday, which turned out so badly even Leia (the dog) wouldn't eat it.

Another favorite pastime he and Linda enjoyed were museums. They even went to museums on their honeymoon: the Boston Museum of Science as well as USS Constitution and the destroyer Cassin Young. The whole list of those visited would be too long (and not just aviation museums, either): the various Smithsonian museums including the hangars at Udvar-Hazy, the Museum of the US Air Force, the Henry Ford and Greenfield Village, the Norman Rockwell Museum, the Breakers in Newport, the Maritime Museum in Virginia, historical sites like Valley Forge, Jamestown, and Yorktown, and more, down to the tiny American Helicopter Museum off the Lincoln Highway in Pennsylvania Dutch country.

He was never so happy as being at a good science fiction convention: DragonCon, Timegate/WhoLanta, Libertycon, ConJuration, Monsterama, and more, and even the old Dixie Trek and Atlanta Fantasy Fair. He loved attending alternate history panels, prowling the dealers room, and listened to speakers as varied as Harlan Ellison and even Alton Brown. We would always run into friends there, like mini-family reunions. He also enjoyed role-playing games.

His plastic model collection was ... prodigious. Let's say he could have opened his own store. He built his own spray paint booth and when he was still in good health, sat happily in his "Man Cave" putting together plastic parts, positioning finicky decals, and applying paint to form jet aircraft, television and movie spacecraft, even tanks. His modeling skills even helped Linda recreate "radio station WENN" for her Christmas village.

James had a great affinity for dogs, and they for him. After Leia passed away in 1998, the family was dogless until one day on vacation visiting Cambridge, MA. While we sat eating lunch in Harvard Square, a woman with a huge dog came by. The dog bypassed Linda's mom (always a dog magnet) completely and instead sat in front of James, somehow knowing where he was needed. Home from that trip, we found out our friends had taken up a collection and showed up at the door with the adoption fee, saying "You need another dog." There had always been one in his life. The last coherent words from him on the morning of April 8 were his calls for his dog Tucker.

He didn't start out liking budgies (parakeets), once having had a job where he had to clean out birdcages at Montgomery Ward. But one day when Linda was depressed, he bought her a budgie and the household was never without one afterwards. When COVID came and James began to telework, the latest bird, Snowy, became James' "work buddy." People on the other end of the phone would ask if he "had birds" and James would grin and say, "Nope, it's just one bird."

James leaves behind his beloved wife, Linda Maria (Lanzi) Young, a much-loved terrier-cross named Tucker, and a budgerigar he knew for only a week before taking ill, Piper. He is reunited with his departed family, including his father, James David Young; mother, Beverly Jean (Simmons) Young; and sisters Dawn Marie (Young) Reed and Candace Elaine Young; while his spirit remains vibrant in the memories of surviving sisters Sherii Lynn (Young) Thrift and Sabra (Young) Ellison, and so many generous and loving friends-who-have-become-family.

"Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth...put out my hand, and touched the face of God." (John Gillespie Magee Jr)

A service or a remembrance has not yet been scheduled. Please check for updates. Please no flowers to the house; Linda is allergic. If you would like to make a donation in James' name, I think he would love it if you donated to the Warner Robins Museum of Aviation.