– February 26, 2023

Roger Austin Young, of Steamboat Springs, CO, died on Sunday, February 26, after a long period of illness. He was 77 years old.

Roger began life in Rumson, NJ, the son of Robert Harris McCarter Young and Gloria Ann Bond, and enjoyed an idyllic boyhood by Seabright Beach alongside his younger brother, Robert Harris McCarter Young, Jr. Following the premature death of the boys’ father, Gloria moved the family to her hometown of Lexington, MA, and eventually married a childhood friend, Charles H. Tenney, II. Roger gained two stepbrothers, Rockwell Tenney and the late Charles H. Tenney, III, in the union.

Throughout his life, Roger remained a proud alumnus of the Dexter School in Brookline, MA, St. Paul’s School in Concord, NH, and Princeton University, from which he graduated Magna Cum Laude, in 1968, with a major in Religion. The latter course of study marked the early steps in Roger’s lifelong walk with God. He would resume his studies when, after retirement, he attended Yale Divinity School for one year — not to become ordained, but as he put it, “just to learn.”

Roger’s professional life was marked by three decades of service to Bay State Gas Company, where he ascended to the positions of President and CEO, and where, apart from his clear business acumen, he was known to be friendly, approachable, fair, and resolutely resistant to Casual Fridays. Far more significantly, though, it was the gas utility business that brought him into contact with a sassy Indiana girl, Linda Furste, whom he would court passionately, if erratically, for five years before coming to the realization that he would regularly proclaim thenceforth: she was the love of his life.

After getting married, Roger and Linda moved to Sherborn, MA, where they raised their two children, Catherine (Cate) and Geoffrey, in a picturesque atmosphere of horses and golf and pool parties and trips to the lake. Roger also became an active and beloved member of Pilgrim Church. Upon retiring in 2000, Roger and Linda pulled up stakes and headed west to Steamboat Springs, CO. There, Roger wasted little time honing his fine form as golfer, skier, and fly fisherman and, of course, finding another church of which to be an active and beloved member. His commitment to St. Paul’s Episcopal Church led him to serve in various leadership roles, including as a Vestry member and Senior Warden, on task forces and committees, leading bible study, and in Sunday worship as a reader and a choir member. Occasionally, Roger would move his place of worship from under the vault of the church to the vault of Colorado’s grand blue sky, where his love of nature, combined with his pride as an athlete, inspired him to summit Quandary Peak, a storied “fourteener,” in celebration of his 70th birthday.

Roger will be remembered as a kind, generous, interesting, interested, and ever-smiling man whose affectionate twinkle became a comfort to all who knew him. He took utter delight in young people, especially his kids and their friends, and his three grandchildren were his special joy. It was his duty and his pleasure to help others in his communities, and a great many people can call themselves beneficiaries of his loving support.

Roger is survived by his wife, Linda, his children Cate Young (Jim Coffelt), Geoffrey (Joanna) Young, his grandchildren Sydney Lehner, Daphne Lehner, and Euan Young, and his brother Bob (Vicky) Young.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Roger’s name to the Organ Fund at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Steamboat Springs, CO, to support the music program that was so dear to his heart:
P.O. Box 770722 Steamboat Springs, CO 80477