Earl L. Young

Earl Lawrence Young, beloved husband, dad and grandpa, passed away June 26, 2019 at the age of 65.

Earl was born on April10, 1954 in Hawthorne, California and was raised in Torrance, California. He joined the Navy in 1973 serving in the Vietnam War on a nuclear submarine until fall of 1979. He was employed by Southern California Edison at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in San Clemente, CA. November 1st, 1980, he married Barbara Hagerty. 

During the next 38 plus years, he raised three beautiful daughters and six awesome grandkids. He loved working on classic cars and attending car shows. He owned three classic cars (’65 Mustang, ’67 Galaxie, ’68 Karmann Ghia) that he was looking forward to finish restoring when he retired.  In 2012 he retired, joining Barbara in Mankato, Minnesota, where they had already bought their retirement home in 2006 and had built the perfect garage/workshop for his classic cars, anticipating an early retirement and getting out of the congestion, high prices, and too busy people of Southern California. He found an awesome tribe of weird, playful and loyal friends in the Satori Violet Belly Dance Company (and yes, he did take some classes and could do an awesome shimmy!), earned his Yoga teacher certification at SunMoon Yoga plus enjoyed the camaraderie and awesome friendships with his fellow Dungeon & Dragons geeks.  

In May of 2018, he was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). At that time he could walk with a cane. By April of 2019, he could no longer walk on his own and was fast losing the use of his hands, arms, voice and swallowing. He entered Hospice care on April 26, 2019 at Oaklawn Rehabilitation Center, Mankato, where he received excellent, compassionate care.

Earl is survived by his wife, Barbara; children, Mary Timmen of San Marcos, Heather (Rudy) Gertzki of Carlsbad, Shannon (Ian) Kelly of Ft Worth; grandchildren, Cody Moody, Kaleb Timmen, Heidi Gertzki, Zane Gertzki, Devon Kelly, Seamus Kelly; and his sisters, Harriet (Leo) Bollar, Carole (Lou) Young. 

A Celebration of Life will be held on August 3rd, 3-9pm at Mankato Brewery, 1119 Center St., North Mankato.

In lieu of flowers, etc, please support the research of ALS and the many families that are affected by this devastating disease at: alsa.org or alsamn.org