Don Young, who served for nearly 50 years in the US House of Representatives, died Friday at 88. He was traveling to his home state of Alaska at the time.
Young was the Dean of the US House and an active supporter of Pacific island issues. Over the years, he visited the Marshall Islands with various Congressional delegations.
He also holds the distinction of being the only person — that we at the Journal know of — to address a session of the Nitijela dressed in a pair of shorts. This milestone event took place in February 1999 when Young led a Congressional delegation on a 10-day trip through the region, which included a 24-hour whirlwind stop in Majuro and Kwajalein.
“Rep. Don Young was probably the first person to address the Nitijela in shorts, but nobody seems to mind as he brought a welcome message from the House Resources Committee,” was the caption to the photo of Young, sporting shorts and and aloha shirt while speaking at the Nitijela podium, that appeared in the February 26, 1999 edition of the Journal.
American Samoa Congresswoman Amata Radewagen said Young was a friend and mentor. When she was first elected to the House, she asked to be placed on House Natural Resources Committee, which has legislative jurisdiction for all US-affiliated islands. “I had the good fortune to be asked to serve as vice chairman of the Subcommittee on Indian, Insular and Alaska Native Affairs, which at the time was being chaired by Congressman Don Young,” she said. “He has since become Dean of the House for several years, but even then, he already was the most senior Republican in the House. Don took me under his wing and I learned so much from him in very short order. I could not have had a better mentor.”
She called him a “friend to American Samoa.”