Elder S. Dilworth Young was known among members of the Church as an author and a poet, having written many poems that appeared in the Ensign. He also wrote the biography of his great grandfather, Brigham Young. Born September 7, 1897 in Salt Lake City, Elder Young graduated from Granite High School and then attended Weber College for one year. He later stated that the rest of his education came from the “University of Hard Knocks.”
During World War I, Elder Young served with the 145th Field Artillery in Europe. When he returned to the United States, he was promptly called to serve as a missionary in the Central States Mission. In later years, he also served as the president of the New England Mission.
In 1923, Elder Young married Gladys Pratt in the Salt Lake Temple; together they had two children. Following Gladys’s death, Elder Young married Huldah Parker in 1965. He served as a professional Boy Scout executive in the Ogden Area Council and received the David O. McKay Humanities Award from Brigham Young University.
Elder Young has delivered many addresses at BYU and he has often spoken of the importance of coming to know God through the promptings of the Holy Ghost. He has encouraged all to live their lives in a celestial manner, so that one day they may receive celestial glory. One of Elder Young’s messages to the world—as found in his BYU address entitled “The Eternal Conflict”—was to “Obey! Obey the commandments of your Father and my Father. Do what I am sure that our heavenly parents taught you . . . Have the determination to go back into their presence when the time comes.”
