Tyler Joe Young Memorial Fund
Established: August 20, 2020
The Tyler Joe Young Memorial Fund was established to provide grants to organizations serving children and young adults in need of financial assistance for mental health and addiction services.
Tyler Joe Young passed away at home on Monday, August 17, in Leesburg, VA. He was 19.
Tyler was born in the Chicago suburb of Barrington and grew up in Leesburg. His quick thinking was a combination of his mom’s analytical skills and his dad’s sense of humor, working in harmony inside a blond, curly head. When his curiosity got him into mischief, his honesty and expert negotiating skills helped get him out.
Gifted does not begin to describe Tyler. As a toddler, he loved disassembling his toys and putting them back together. He took up chess and conquered every kind of Rubik’s Cube. His idea of summer camp was coding at Princeton, analyzing algorithms at Yale, and creating computer operating systems at UCLA. He taught himself to play the harmonica, piano, and ukulele, and was a trombonist in the marching band.
Tyler could make anyone laugh, showed selfless kindness to those around him, and had a unique talent to connect individually with every person he met. He was silly and happy and always the entertainer. His versatility ranged his outfits from bow ties to Sperry’s and Hawaiian shirts, and his music from heavy rap to classic rock and Lana Del Rey. He was our resident Star Wars scholar and reigning lip sync champion.
Tyler was adored by a big blended family and loved being a brother. He was his big sister’s pride and closest confidant. He was the only one who could make his sisters cry with laughter and convince his younger brother to get in trouble. He had an older brother to teach him the ways so he could be a hero to his new baby brother. His parents were so proud of the man he became.
Tyler had struggles too, and he faced them with enormous courage, determination, and a desire to be his best self. He graduated from Loudoun County High School in 2019 and was majoring in math at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Tyler’s life was full of promise and he was taken from us and this earthly place way too soon. He is in our hearts and will live among us as an angel forever.
Thank you for your support of this fund.
You can learn more about Tyler's life in the recently released book The Worst Thing: A Sister’s Journey Through her Brother’s Addiction and Death by Tyler's sister and author Alexis Young. It's a candid memoir that exposes the secrecy, myths, and destruction related to addiction. Alexis brings light to Tyler’s life and his battle with opioid addiction that ultimately led to his accidental death.
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