George Younger was born on July 24, 1926 to Dorothy Isabelle Diggdon Younger and Dana Reed Younger Sr. in Mt Kisco, NY, where his parents were directing the summer camp of the Kips Bay Boys Club. The first of two boys, he and his brother (Paul Alden Younger) spent his summers in the camp program with the boys from the East Side of New York City. And in the winter they lived in the penthouse apartment on the top of the club. A real plus was that the club's facilities of a pool and gym were available to them.

His parents, both from the Baptist Church of Manchester, MA, had planned to be missionaries in Africa. Neither were able to quite complete their education due to financial difficulties, she as a nurse and he from Tufts University. Thus they were ineligible for that service. Instead they dedicated their lives to working with the youth of NYC. Once in the city they found their way to the newly opened Riverside Church, where the boys were both among the first children to be dedicated there.

Both boys received their Christian education in the church school and youth programs at the church which, at the time, were under the direction of Dr. C. Ivar Hellstrom and his wife, Mary Allison Hellstrom. While it did focus their interest in social issues, it also had a very strong Biblical base. (George often claimed that he passed his Bible content course in Seminary on the basis of his Sunday School studies.) His parents were recruited by the Hellstrom's to work with their parent education program in which both became leaders.

George and Paul both attended Lincoln School, the progressive elementary school run by Teacher's College. There they were exposed to a broad cultural and very progressive education. Much of the teaching was done organizing the children in small groups, which then produced dioramas, plays, poetry and other forms of the arts..

Both boys then transferred for their secondary education to an environment as opposite as one could imagine at The Trinity School, an old line Episcopal day school in the city. There, in his English class, the assignment was to write a composition every day. Because it was strictly graded, it prepared George to become a facile writer. Trinity also offered a broad classical education.. He was involved in a few sports, and also in the school newspaper, The Trinity Times, of which he later became editor. Education

At 16 he was enrolled in the wartime acceleration program at Yale College, largely because his parents wanted him to be able to get back and forth easily by train. His education was interrupted by 15 months in the army at Fort Dix, NJ. He spent his brief time there doing office work because he was registered as a non-combatant. He returned to Yale to graduate at 21 in 1947. It was during his time in the Army that he began to think seriously about going into the ministry, rather than the law, for which he was initially preparing.

Two very strong influences impacted his life at Yale. The first was the role of Dwight Hall, Yale's Christian Association. He was very active in its programs, and through it, became a part of the New England Student Christian Movement. In December of 1946, he attended the National Student Christian Movement Assembly in Urbana, IL where he was further inspired by the speakers and leaders there. Through the SCM he had developed a deep concern for social justice and had already decided that he wanted to be a pastor in an urban, industrial area. The logical next step was to enter Yale Divinity School that fall. The summer before he entered the Divinity School he took part in the Hartford Students in Industry Program. These projects were sponsored by the Student Christian Movement to give college students an understanding of the "bottom side" of America's industries.

At Yale he also discovered that he loved singing. He immediately joined the Glee Club, and became a part of a quartette with Fenno Heath, who later became the Glee Club director. George enjoyed small group and choral singing throughout his life and his voice also rang out above the congregation in every church in which he served.

He was a serious student at YDS, lapping up every intellectual challenge that came along. But he also took part in any and every activity in which he could to get to dialogue with the people who were already shaping Christian theology and ethics, and/or places where he could demonstrate his commitment. One activity that strengthened these skills, was working with a group of students who produced a weekly religious radio program called "Religion at the News Desk." During the week they discussed the most significant thing happening in the world and wrote and presented an analysis.

Between his first and second year, the summer of 1948, he worked in Atlanta with the Georgia Workers Education Service of the CIO and the AF of L doing labor education and recreational programs.

During the first year at YDS, he met and courted Doris Anne (Dodie) Hill, a fellow student, who came from the Middle Atlantic Student Christian Movement and had also been at the Assembly the previous December. They were married on June 4, 1949 in Marquand Chapel at the Divinity School That summer they worked together in the Presumpscot Larger Parish, in Windham, Raymond and Gorham, ME, where they each directed three two-week vacation church schools, sponsored a Youth Group, and preached every Sunday, and sometimes as many as three times a Sunday when the minister was on his vacation.

They graduated together in June, 1950, George, cum laude, and had already begun to look for their first church. This was the time when the US was full of growing suburban churches, and there was no dearth of opportunities there, but George was committed to an urban, industrial area. They lived with their parents over the summer, but as summer became fall they found housing in NYC with a Riverside Church family. Each held several part time jobs that winter. George researched and wrote a significant piece, the May, 15, 1951 issue of "Social Action", "Protestant Piety and the Right Wing." First Pastorate, Rochester, PA In their search process George talked with Ernest Witham, secretary for cities, in the American Baptist Home Mission Society (ABHMS) who referred him to John Thomas, then with the ABC Ministers and Missionaries Benefit Board. John became a mentor and encourager. George's search was especially difficult because he came from both The Riverside Church and Yale Divinity School and did not have the usual Baptist connections that helped in the search for a first pastorate. However In March of 1951, he finally received a call to become the pastor of the American Baptist congregation, First Baptist Church of Rochester, PA. Rochester was located in the Beaver Valley, a few miles beyond Ambridge and Aliquippa, the two big steel manufacturing towns above Pittsburgh. It was also a part of a three town group (Beaver, Monaca and Rochester) that made it a more urban area.

George wanted very much to become an active part of his denomination and was able to do so by participating in the activities of thee Pittsburgh Baptist Association and the Pennsylvania Baptist Convention. At the two ABC National Conventions he attended in 1953 and 1955 he was also an active part of a group of young, liberals who called themselves the Free Church Seminar.

His vision of ministry was broad, and in this first church he immediately began working with other groups in the community, both religious and secular. He was a very active member of the Rochester Ministers Council. The church worked cooperatively with the other local Protestant churches in establishing Weekday Released Time Religious Education Classes and Vacation Church Schools. He nurtured the church's relationship with the Black Baptist Church in the community, Second Baptist Church, and exchanged pulpits regularly. George appeared regularly on the local radio devotional program, Chapel of the Valley. He became the treasurer of the Rochester Civic Association and helped to implement the Red Cross annual blood drive.

At the same time, because of his connections both to Yale Divinity School and activists in New York City, he traveled to NYC to help establish a short lived national organization, Christian Action, begun by Reinhold Niebuhr and John Bennett, both at Union Theological Seminary, and Liston Pope from Yale. Later in NYC he was active in the local group that continued until 1963.

George's mature ministry can be divided into four time periods: Mariners' Temple Baptist Church; a time of transition and work in urban training; Executive Minster, ABC/New Jersey and retirement. In each of these he demonstrated over and over his commitment to the ABC/USA , to ecumenical work, to the community and social justice efforts, and to the disciplines of history, ethics and theology, while continuing to do research, analysis, writing and editing. And all the while preaching, teaching, and mentoring others

Mariners' Temple Baptist Church In 1955 he was asked to come to New York City to test his interest in serving as the associate pastor at the Mariners' Temple Baptist Church, a Home Mission Project of the ABHMS. It was understood that he was to succeed the then current pastor, Rev. Joseph Palmer, who had been called from retirement to open a ministry there when the Alfred E. Smith Housing Project was erected a few blocks away. It was just the challenge that George was ready for. George and Dodie were commissioned as missionaries in May, 1955 at the ABC Convention in Atlantic City. Rev. Palmer died the following January opening the way for an 11 year ministry there.

The family moved to the housing development across the street from Smith Houses, Knickerbocker Village, in the summer of 1955, with their two older children, Judy and Dana. Stephen was born the following spring. The children, because their parents believed heartily in public education, attended the neighborhood schools. Later they tested into NY's specialized High Schools, Bronx Science and Stuyvesant High Schools. Samuel, who was born five years later, completed elementary school in the neighborhood. George quickly involved the Mariners Temple congregation in the local community organization, The Two Bridges Neighborhood Association. In 1957 he began its local newspaper, The Two Bridges News, which he edited for 10 years. He was particularly involved in housing and education issues. When the anti-poverty programs were being developed George was asked to be a part of the original Mobilization for Youth, Inc. board in 1958 and chaired its Educational Opportunities Committee. In the early 1960's he was elected to Local School Board 3, which included 23 schools on the lower East and West sides of Manhattan. From 1962 -1970 he was the Chairman of that board. During this time he was also the Vice-president of the board of Gouverneur Gardens, Inc, a middle income housing development. It is not surprising that in 1965 he was cited in a list of "Outstanding young professionals in the field of poverty planning and social welfare" for his "eleven years of experience in an inner city parish, with great talents for writing and analysis of public education."

In his years at the Temple, George worked with the New York Baptist City Society, serving on a number of boards. The denomination early recognized his skills as a theologian, and he was a major player in the series of national theological conferences held between 1956 and 1967. He was commissioned to write the study book, "The Bible Calls for Action," which was published in 1958. And in 1958 he was chosen as the first editor of Foundations, A Baptist Journal of History and Theology, a post he held for the following ten years. He was also increasingly involved with the programs of the Division of Evangelism of the ABHMS beginning with the program, Baptist Jubilee Advance.

During his years at the Temple he was also very involved in cooperative work with the other churches in the neighborhood, especially in a program called the Two Bridges Cooperative Ministry. He served consistently on a variety of boards or committees of NYC's Protestant Council as well as on committees of the National Council of Churches. He was frequently sought out to be the chairman. Or, the person who gathered and analyzed data, the drafter of initial statements, or the refiner of documents. George's life in those years was packed full every day with meetings all over the city while at the same time working with the pastoral team at the Temple. He firmly believed that he could not keep up that pace without a break. He and Dodie always insisted that they have the month of August for vacation. In 1957 they took their first vacation in Sorrento, Maine and in 1960 they were able to purchase an acre on which they built a simple cabin the following year. The time in Sorrento was really a time away. Until the 80's they had no phone, and George went to the public phone at the town dock once a week to check with his office. In Maine he could take time to review his work, think, analyze, work on writing projects, as well as take time with the family for recreation, especially sailing.

He also decided after seven years at the Temple, that he should take advantage of an earned sabbatical. By this time he had written his second book, "The Church and Urban Power Structure.", and more ideas were percolating. He was turned down for a Guggenheim Grant, and tried a number of other sources without success. His friend, Dr. Bob Lee, at San Francisco Theological Seminary, had accepted more projects than he could handle and invited George to pick up a study of urban housing. He also helped the family to secure housing San Anselmo. The winter of 1963-64 gave the family a much needed time to be together under less stress. The children did well in the suburban schools. The family enjoyed visiting National Parks and friends as they drove across the country. George completed his third book, "The Church and Urban Renewal." and also did some seminary teaching.

As early as 1958, Jitsuo Morikawa, urged him to join the staff of the Department of Evangelism of the ABHMS. However he maintained that his ministry in the local church was what he was called to do. However, 1966 proved to be a turning point in his life. He was ready to complete his ministry at the Temple. He wrote, "We have seen a congregation rise where a large part of the program is directed and conducted by the people themselves. When we arrived, no children in the church were completing high school. This June Harvey Britton will graduate from Alderson-Broaddus, and we have at least five young people entering college next year." Note: From Missionary Letter, Spring 1966, in ABHMS Personnel file He was chosen as an American Baptist delegate to the World Conference on Church and Society of the World Council of Churches in Geneva, Switzerland that summer. He and Dodie were able to take a six week trip to England, Switzerland, Germany, Holland and France and visited workers in urban mission and outstanding urban housing areas.

Transition and Urban Training In the fall of 1966 he accepted Morikawa's invitation to join his staff as Program Associate, Division of Evangelism, ABHMS assigned to metropolitan New York in the area of housing and city planning. During those years he was heavily involved in Morikawa's visionary approach to evangelism and in his program, Metropolitan Associates of Philadelphia. He also carried heavy responsibilities in an extensive planning program for the denomination. At the same time he was also involved in a nationwide ecumenical program of "action-research" in mission and evangelism that had begun in New York, the Metropolitan Urban Service Training (MUST.) While the invitation to move to Philadelphia at first sounded appealing, the family soon decided that they wanted to remain in New York. At the end of June, 1968, he submitted his resignation to Jitsuo to take effect no later than September 20, 1968. In his letter he wrote, "The nub of this decision is my determination not to serve in the coming period in a national religious corporation..Instead, I wish to be placed in a church-related program, either denominational or ecumenical, in a metropolitan area, preferably here in New York, where I already have so many associations and perspective…..this has been the result of my own effort to understand where I should be serving at this particular time in history." Note: Interoffice Memo, ABHMS,070/3/1968, ABHMS Personnel File MUST was first directed by Dr. George W (Bill) Webber. In 1968 its staff decided, because of its heavy involvement in training around racism that its director needed to be a Black. Randy Nugent, a staff member, was then chosen as its director. The organization replaced its younger seminary graduates with a Black community organizer, a psychologist/social worker (who came from the staff of the New York City Mission Society) and George Younger. By the end of the 1968-69 academic years, Bill Webber left when he assumed the presidency of New York Theological Seminary.

Informally, MUST's outspoken support for James Forman and the Black Manifesto probably laid the groundwork for the withdrawal of support by some denominations, particularly the United Methodists, who had originally founded the program and were providing the major share of its budget. The organization received the shocking news in April 1970 that the Methodists were going to slowly terminate their funding. Randy Nugent then left to join the staff of the National Council of Churches, and he recommended that George Younger be named as interim director. He remained "Acting Director" until the program closed in September of 1972 when he moved to Chicago to become co-director of the Urban Training Center for Christian Mission (UTC). UTC was the premier ecumenical training center in the country funded by all of the mainline denominations George was pleased and excited to be invited to take this position.. He thrived in this work, really loving every minute of the planning of programs, working with other staff, reaching out into the various churches and their areas of urban need. It was a real tragedy in 1973 when he began to realize that the denominations were reducing their annual contributions at the request of their national board members who were of the opinion that the church had spent enough money on the poor and had to get back to its basic mission of evangelism. In 1975 he worked with the board as it made its decision to close the program. He then took on himself the closing of the office and putting its files in an archive. But he also took on the job of writing the book that would preserve the history of action training ministries. It was painful work and he did not complete "From New Creation to Urban Crisis: A History of Action Training Ministries, 1962-1975" until 1987.

Because he had read the writing on the wall in 1973 he began looking for "what the Lord was calling him to do next." It was a difficult search. George, Dodie and Sam had settled comfortably into life in Evanston. Sam enjoyed his schools there, and Dodie was teaching at one of the city colleges, Kennedy King. His resume was reviewed by several churches which deemed him "overqualified." He was not well known in the American Baptist regional organizations; they did not give him an enthusiastic reception. In a letter to Jitsuo Morikawa he wrote, "As happened exactly 25 years ago when I graduated from seminary, this does not seem to be the time or place for the particular gifts, experience and sense of vocation that I bring to the mission and ministry of Christ in this age."

Executive Minister, American Baptist churches of New Jersey His prayers were answered when in the fall of 1975 he received a call from the American Baptist Churches of New Jersey to serve as their Executive Minister. He then spent the last sixteen years of his career in that position. George, Dodie and Sam moved to South Orange, and Sam finished high school there. Dodie then became Executive Director of American Baptist Women, and later General Director of Church Women United. NJ is probably the most urbanized state in the US. Its churches are heterogeneous both in theological and ethnic perspective, worshiping in English, French, Spanish and Mandarin Chinese. Under his leadership the region established many new churches, including several Haitian ones, developed a full program of support in their witness and service in the world as well as their own life of fellowship and nurture.

His major role, of course, was to work with the churches, managing placement of clergy, counseling clergy, resolving problems in local churches, promoting educational and mission programs and projects, visiting and preaching in churches almost every Sunday as well as at special functions.

But in his typical style, the record shows that he managed to keep his hand in the workings of ecumenical organizations, primarily the NJ Council of Churches, the Coalition of Religious Leaders and the Fund for Theological Education. He contributed a lot of time and energy to NJ organizations that expressed his social justice concerns. These include the New Jersey Recycling Forum (when recycling was just beginning to be thought of as an issue), the NJ Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, the NJ and National Religion and Labor group, Clergy and Laity Concerned (CALC),and the Tri State Economic Justice Network, to name just a few. He more than carried his weight in his roles with the ABC Regional Executive Ministers and the ABC General Staff Council. And he served terms on the board of the American Baptist Historical Society, the ABC Eastern Commission on the Ministry. After the ABC staff tour to Zaire he followed that up by taking a group of pastors there. Later he served as a consultant there for International Ministries.

Retirement In 1992 he had heart surgery, just as he announced his retirement. He quickly recovered and soon found a new rhythm for his life. He was needed everywhere. He wanted to do some serious writing, but there were always calls for his leadership to do something. He enjoyed being the Non Governmental Representative for the Baptist World Alliance at the United Nations. He was able to be active in his home church, the Riverside Church, where he served on the Church Council, the Worship Commission and the Budget Committee. He became the Baptist Polity teacher for the three area seminaries: Drew, New Brunswick and Union. And he squeezed in the writing of a number of articles and papers.

But he also took more time for longer summers in Maine, travel-- several Elder hostels, and for singing. Dodie and George did a week's singing for five summers at the Berkshire Choral Festival. And when the Yale Alumni Chorus was organized in 1999, they were among the first to sign up for its first trip which was to China. They repeated this in 2001, just before his death, when the group went to Russia, Wales and London

Final Illness When the Younger moved to NJ in 1976, they sought medical advice from an old Yale friend, a doctor on the staff of the Princeton Medical Group. At his first examination there he referred him to the staff dermatologist because he spotted a rather large mole on George's back. The dermatologist was not concerned. However about ten years later he noticed that the mole was bleeding. A dermatologist then removed it, and sent him to a surgeon to remove a lot of the area around it. It proved to be melanoma but the report was that the lymph nodes were negative. Subsequently he had several smaller melanomas removed from both his arms and face.

In the summer of 2001 he began to have some digestive problems. On September 18 he was admitted to the emergency room and they found a large tumor on his pancreas. After the surgery to provide a bypass, the medical team reported that the cause was melanoma. The family tried to get him into a clinical trial, but his disease was too advanced. He died on November 21 2001.

In December there was a memorial service at the First Baptist Church of Westfield, and the following day, a service at The Riverside Church in New York City. He is buried in the small cemetery in Sorrento, Maine.