Truman Young Jr. loved hiking and the outdoors, even going on long trips alone “before there were cellphones,” said his daughter, Susan Fortier of Orono, Maine.
Young, who died in Denver on April 7 at age 86, climbed 40 of the state’s 54 fourteeners and did hundreds of miles over his lifetime. Some of his hikes were along abandoned railroad tracks.
That was another passion: steam engines, which he rode on and photographed with his favorite camera, a double-lens Rolleiflex. He never had a digital camera. “He was a purist and believed a person should have the best camera and the purest scotch: single malt scotch,” said his son, Truman Young III of Davis, Calif.
Dedicated to protecting the wilderness, he testified before congressional committees for the Wilderness Act in 1974 and 1986.
“I was 10 when I went with him to testify,” said his son. “He was an impassioned person intellectually and he got fired up about things, especially the wilderness. He was so excited, and maybe a little nervous, that he was trembling.”
Truman Young Jr. always carried “his trusty Big Chief pad” and chronicled what he did and saw, Fortier said.
“I think he was a frustrated writer,” she said.
Young took his family on hiking trips, along with his dog Giblet, a black Labrador mix, so-named because he ate all the giblets out of a pan that had been put out to cool before a Christmas dinner.
Young went into remote areas as far as he could take a vehicle and then began hiking. “He loved the solitude,” said his son, who can remember driving with his dad to the end of a road and seeing a sign that read, “No vehicles except Jeeps and Volkswagens.”
Truman Young Jr. actually planned to be a journalist and took classes in photojournalism but went into Linotype operating instead. He spent most of his career as a printer and typesetter for both the Rocky Mountain News and The Denver Post. He retired in 1988.
Truman Post Young Jr. was born in St. Louis on Feb. 28, 1924, and attended Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, before being drafted into the Army. He served in the infantry during World War II and was in the D-Day invasion and the Battle of the Bulge.
He graduated from Washington University in St. Louis. He married Carol Pieske in 1950. They later divorced and he married Anitta Narzissenfeld in 1965.
In addition to his wife, daughter and son, he is survived by another son, Mike Whittlesey of Denver; another daughter, Helen Stratton of Bristol, Vt.; seven grandchildren; and two sisters, Pat Jones of Williamsburg, Mo., and Anne Lloyd of Eureka, Mo.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
