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JAMES FREDERICK YOUNG
191 7-1980
BY FRANCIS K. McCUNE
AND ARTHUR M. BUECHE
JAMES F. YOUNG, Vice-President of Technical Resources for the
General Electric Company, died in Greenwich, Connecticut, on
November 22, 1980. His entire professional career was spent at
General Electric, and he was personally involved in the design and
manufacture of many company products. He influenced the educa-
tion and professional development of many students and engineers
and, by his own example, demonstrated his conviction that an engi-
neer should participate in technical society and government affairs.
Born on January 4, 1917, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he
received his B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from Lafayette
College in 1937. He graduated with honors and was a member of
Tau Beta Pi, Phi Beta Kappa, and Alpha Phi Omega fraternities.
That same year he was hired by General Electric and enrolled in its
three-year Advanced Engineering Program, which he later super-
vised. He developed a broad interest in education and, in particular,
in ways to aid the transition of young graduates from an academic
environment to the application of engineering to solve real prob-
lems.
In 1940 he started the Creative Engineering Course, which
emphasized innovative, ingenious, but practical approaches to
design as a supplement to other classes in mathematical analysis; this
was probably the first such course in the country. He edited Materials
and Processes, published in 1944, which was based on the background
305
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306
MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
information developed for that course, and demand justified a
revised edition in 1954. Prior to his death he had been assisting in
the preparation of the third edition of this book.
After several years of administering and developing educational
programs, Jim Young transferred to the Appliance and Merchandise
Department. When consumer goods work was cut back during the
war in favor of defense work, he was the engineer responsible for
rocket launchers and torpedo gyroscopes. Postwar design of washing
machines, refrigerators, freezers, and air conditioners gave him a
lasting appreciation of the importance of recognizing and fulfilling
the needs of customers. It was during this period that he obtained
most of the twenty patents granted him.
In 1953, in his new position as Consultant to the Vice-President of
Engineering, Jim Young had his first opportunity to become
acquainted with the technology requirements for all of General Elec-
tric. Another broadening experience occurred in 1958 when he was
appointed General Manager of the General Engineering Labora-
tory, which worked on critical technical problems throughout the
company.
Although he later enjoyed a very wide scope of technical business
responsibilities, energy became his dominant personal interest. In
1960 his work as General Manager, Electric Utility Systems Engi-
neering, familiarized him with utility requirements both domesti-
cally and abroad. In 1963 he was appointed General Manager of the
Nuclear Energy Division during a critical and exciting time in the
history of nuclear energy. Feasibility had been demonstrated by
plants such as Dresden I, and the next phase, and Jim Young's job,
was the implementation of a technical and business program that
would lead to a line of practical, commercially competitive nuclear
plants by the late 1960s. The variety of new considerations was
formidable: soundness of concepts, need for new techniques and
procedures, understanding of behavior of materials and fastenings
under intense radiation, safety and reliability assurance, control,
and integration with utility systems all of these, coupled with the
long time required to verify critical hypotheses, presented a succes-
sion of unique challenges. During this period, he became, and
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JAMES FREDERICK YOUNG
307
remained, convinced of the practicality, safety, and need for nuclear
power in this country and worldwide.
After election as Vice-President and with the nuclear development
well under way, Jim Young became Vice-President of Engineering
for General Electric in 1966. With an opportunity for broad corpo-
rate long-range thinking and planning, he encouraged developments
in the fields of gas turbines, aircraft jet engines, diesel engines, steam
turbines, combined cycles, and solar power. He emphasized energy
· · ~ , . . .
conservation In t he design ot more event energy-us~ng equipment
and also in more efficient generation. He continued his previous
interests in less conventional methods of energy conversion, such as
magnetohydrodynamics, thermoelectrics, thermionics, wind, and
tides.
Jim Young was often asked to testify to congressional committees
and government and state agencies on various aspects of energy. In
his words, he felt an obligation, as a good corporate citizen, to share
with them his experience and judgment and to do so as completely
and thoroughly as possible. In addition to his knowledge and compe-
tence, two other factors were said to be important in establishing his
reputation as a credible, expert witness: he never talked down to his
audience, and he showed his sincere desire to help. These were not
qualities he adopted for such occasions; they were inherent in his
character.
Other aspects of his broad responsibilities included company poli-
cies on product quality, product safety, and product service. Still
others were standardization, metrification, and environmental pro-
tection. When he was asked to give testimony to committees and
agencies on these subjects, he especially tried to present balanced
judgments on the wisdom and practicality of regulations and codes.
In 1963 he was granted an honorary doctorate by Lafayette Col-
lege. In 1967 he was elected to membership in the National Acad-
emy of Engineering and served on several committees. He was
President of the Atomic Industrial Forum, 1966-1968, and was an
honorary Director at the time of his death. He served on the
Materials Advisory Board of the National Research Council, he was
Chairman of the National Research Council's Committee on Mate-
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MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
rial Requirements Criteria for Advanced Design, and he was a
Board Member of the National Safety Council. Additionally, he was
a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, a
member of the National Society of Professional Engineers, and a
Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
His early interests in education continued with service as a mem-
ber of the Board of Trustees of Lafayette College, a member of the
Corporation of the Polytechnic Institute of New York, and a Trustee
of Clarkson College of Technology. He enjoyed direct involvement
with young people, guiding, stimulating, and aiding them in their
own professional development. One of his great contributions to
engineering was his encouragement of young engineers to think and
act like professionals and his discouragement of unionism as a
restraint on the scope and depth of an engineer's activities.
The advancement and application of technology were Jim
Young's lifework, but privately, architecture fascinated him, and he
developed real competence in that field. He designed homes for his
family and for several friends. He was always happy to discuss and
improve house plans for his acquaintances and, because of his typi-
cal high enthusiasm, some friends learned more about architecture
than they had thought they needed to know.
He had outstanding engineering and management capabilities, as
shown by the numerous important positions he held within the
General Electric Company. However, in many ways he was much
more than a competent engineer and manager. He combined the
generation of innovative ideas, a great depth of engineering knowl-
edge, and an understanding of customer requirements with the abil-
ity to apply them to practical ends. He had a unique ability to
analyze complex problems and present ideas for their solutions. He
could communicate with others in such a way as to stimulate their
enthusiasm and help them to apply their creative ideas to the manu-
facture of products and systems. His major contributions were made
through others and were often unknown to his associates and to the
engineering community at large. And he was quite happy to have it
that way.
An illuminating image of Jim Young was revealed during the
preparation of this tribute. When former co-workers were asked
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JAMES FREDERICK YOUNG
309
about him, their replies invariably emphasized him as a person.
Typical descriptions were that he understood engineers' concerns;
that he was always ready to listen, accessible, and fair; that he
developed people and stimulated associates; that he knew what he
was talking about; and that, as a General Manager, he emphasized
· .
gooc engineering.
The more tangible accomplishments were remembered and rec-
ognized, but his friends remembered more vividly his genuine and
deep personal relationships, his stimulating personality, his emphasis
on integrity, his desire to help, and above all, his great warmth.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
nuclear energy
