Obituary of Marilyn Van Voorhis Young

A piece of Los Altos history has been lost.

Marilyn Van Voorhis Young died peacefully in her home in Los Altos on February 22nd, 2017. She had lived in Los Altos for 60 years.

Many in our community will remember Marilyn Young from her years at Los Altos High School. She began in 1961 as a substitute teacher and ended her 27-year career in education as the first woman vice principal in the history of the district. She was also actively involved with Great Books, the Los Altos Tennis Club, the American Association of University Women (AAUW), the Peninsula Democratic Committee (PDC) and the Stanford Macintosh Users' Group (SMUG).

Marilyn loved to travel, both domestically and abroad. As young parents, she and her husband, McCready ("Mac") Young trailer-camped many summers with their two youngest children, visiting much of the western United States. As head of the French department at Los Altos High School in the 1970's, Marilyn led several student groups on tours of France. Following her retirement in 1985, she and Mac traveled frequently, visiting most countries in Europe, taking classes at Chiang Mai University in Thailand, hiking the Milford Track in New Zealand and enjoying many other adventures.

After her husband's death in 1995, Marilyn continued to travel, adding Japan, China, Russia, and countries in Eastern Europe, South America and Africa to her portfolio of scrapbooks. At the time of her death she had visited every continent except Antarctica.
Closer to home in later years, she enjoyed tent camping with children and grandchildren up and down the California coast. Even when her air mattress went flat, she got lost on the way to the rest room at night, or the tent collapsed, she took it all in stride as part of the experience.

Marilyn was an early adopter of computer technology, becoming a Macintosh enthusiast in the 1980s and getting her first email address in 1993 before any of her children or grandchildren. For many years she edited the newsletters of organizations she belonged to, including SMUG, AAUW, and the Los Altos Tennis Club. She was president of the Los Altos/Mountain View Branch of AAUW from 1997-98. She belonged to several bridge groups, and played tennis well into her 80's before failing eyesight forced her to give up both games.

Marilyn is survived by her children and their spouses: Dana and Karen Young of Georgetown TX; Allyson and David Johnson of Los Altos, CA; Michele and Roberto van Eyken of Davis, CA and Chris and Colleen Young of Longview, WA, as well as nine grandchildren and fifteen great-grandchildren.

A memorial for Marilyn Young will be held on Saturday, March 18, 2017 at 11: 00 a.m. at Spangler Mortuary Chapel, 399 S. San Antonio Road in Los Altos with a reception following at the same location. Friends, neighbors, former colleagues and students are invited to share memories of Marilyn with the family.

In lieu of flowers, the family request donations to Doctors Without Borders (www.doctorswithoutborders.org/donate)
or to Smile Train (www.smiletrain.org) in Marilyn's memory




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