Thomas A. Young

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Thomas A. Young, 88, of Wooster, Ohio, died Monday, Aug. 11, 2008, in Wooster Community Hospital.

Friends will be received 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday at the McIntire, Davis and Greene Funeral Home, 216 E. Larwill St., Wooster, Ohio. Services will be held at the Funeral Home at 11 a.m. Friday with the Rev. James Watt officiating. Burial will be at the Ohio Western Reserve National Cemetery.

Born May 7, 1920, in Eldorado, he was the son of Thomas J. and Freda Allen Young.

He served his country for 12 years with the Navy Air Corps. He served in the South Pacific as a fighter pilot and later in the air transport service.

He attended Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and later was employed there. He was a commercial pilot, flight instructor and area services manager. His favorite duty was serving as head coach of the SIU "Flying Salukis" who won multiple national championships in the National Intercollegiate Flying Association. He was honored as a member of the Illinois Aviation Hall of Fame and was also coach of the U.S. Precision Flying Team which competed internationally.

He was a member of the First Presbyterian Church in Carbondale, a member of the Elks and Lions in Carbondale, the Masonic Lodge in Broughton and the American Legion in Murphyboro.

Surviving are his wife, Mary Jones Young, whom he married Dec. 9, 1944; a daughter, Mary Clare Young of Westmont, N.J.; a son, Thomas A. "Ty" (Cynthia) Young II of Wooster, Ohio; grandchildren, Ashley and Andrew; and a sister, Charlotte Barker of Columbia, Mo.