Young to be honored

John G. Young will be honored by his alma mater Earlham College on Friday, receiving the college’s distinguished service award.

Young, a 1955 Earlham graduate, is the retired board chairman and chief executive officer of the Jay Garment Company.

He is former chairman and chief executive officer of the American Apparel Manufacturers Association and has been a civic leader in Jay County for more than a generation. Most recently, Young played a key leadership role in the fund-raising effort for the Portland water park.

He and his wife Gretchen, also an Earlham graduate, are in the process of moving to an assisted living residence in Zionsville.

After his graduation from Earlham, he spent a year in graduate study at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and completed the course work on his master’s degree at Trinity University in Texas while he was stationed with the U.S. Army in San Antonio.

He served 18 years as an Earlham alumni trustee and an at-large trustee approved by Western Yearly Meeting. He was vice chair of the Board of Trustees and served a 10-year term, some of them as chair of the Earlham Foundation. 

He served briefly as chair of the Conner Prairie Board during Conner Prairie’s transition to independence and was the first Earlham appointee to the independent Conner Prairie Museum board of directors. 

He and his wife are members of First Presbyterian Church in Portland, where both have served in leadership positions. Young is a past president of the Portland Rotary Club and has served in a number of volunteer positions at Arts Place.