Obituary of Howell Jack'' Young

Howell “Jack” Young, a man devoted to the youth of Burlington passed away unexpectedly on Tuesday, January 30, 2018. He was 81 years old. Jack was the son of Howell and Ada Young. He grew up and was educated in Arlington. He was a graduate of Arlington High School. He enlisted in the Army and served his country for 4 years. He worked for over 35 years for Tekon Technical Consultants. The company was a small family business that tested and balanced heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems all over New England. Jack was a field technician and worked on all sorts of commercial properties, hospitals, many of the large skyscrapers in the area, and even the JFK Library. He enjoyed the independence and the challenges of his work and figuring out and correcting the deficiencies the designers and installers may have caused. In his retirement years he helped his son at RH Young Cooling and Heating, but he had to admit it was a little difficult to take orders from your son. Jack and his wife Joan moved to Burlington in 1968. He quickly got involved in youth sports with his children. He was a coach, past President, and a member of the Board of Directors for the Burlington Babe Ruth. He also coached for his daughters’ softball teams. He ran basketball clinics for the Burlington Recreation Department for years. He was a coach, Past President, and member of the Board of Directors of the Burlington Hockey and Figure Skating Association. He coached the top team in the Midgets age group for many years with his brother in law Ed Flanagan. It was during the era when the little town of Burlington was a hockey powerhouse. His teams regularly were State Champions and won the Nationals several times. In the National Tournament, it was like Samson fighting Goliath. Burlington Youth Hockey playing select teams from cities, like Chicago. It was a great time and experience not only for the players, but the parents, coaches, and community. The entire community gathered around the teams, helped them fundraise to help defray the travel costs, and welcomed the boys like conquering heroes when the returned. Jack had a strong core coaching values, like responsibility, teamwork, respect for the game and your teammates, hard work, there is no “I” in “Team”, and most importantly, playing sports must be Fun! He was very pleased to see many of his players go onto play college hockey and professional hockey, 2 players even earned the coveted Hobey Baker Memorial Award for NCAA hockey player best ''exhibits strength of character both on and off the ice'' and ''contributes to the integrity of the team and displays outstanding skills in all phases of the game'', and most importantly see his players become responsible adults, have successful careers, have families, and go onto coach and influence children just as he did. He was so proud that he had a little part in instilling the love of sports and good sportsmanship in the hearts of the youth of Burlington. Jack himself never lost the passion for sports and played softball with his coworkers for many years. He loved following pro football, but to the disappointment of his family, his favorite team since childhood was not the Patriots, but the Pittsburgh Steelers. Jack was the beloved husband of 58 years of Joan Marie (Mahoney) Young. He was the loving and supportive father of Marybeth Iannuzzi & her husband Kenneth of Burlington, Bob Young & his wife Nancy of Wilmington, Joan Pare & her husband Gerard of Littleton, Jane Efraimson & her husband Carl of Burlington and Jennifer Currie & her husband Paul of Burlington. He was predeceased by his sister ; Idalette Montgomery. Jack was the proud grandfather of Natalie Brehm, Katie & Kenneth Jr. Iannuzzi, Patrick & Madison Young, Sydney Pare, Andrew Efraimson, and Mike, Haley & Hannah Currie and great grandfather of Ava & Jaden Brehm and Emma Iannuzzi. A visitation will be held at the Edward V Sullivan Funeral Home, 43 Winn Street Burlington (Exit 34 off Rt. 128/95 Woburn side) on Saturday, Feb. 3 from 3-6 p.m. Concluding with Funeral Services at 6 p.m. Relatives & friends respectfully invited to attend. Burial will be private. In lieu of flowers memorials in Jack’s name may be made to Burlington Hockey & Figure Skating Association, PO Box 444, Burlington, MA 01803. Words of remembrance by Haley Currie For those of you who don’t know, my name is Haley and I am one of the many grandkids who are here today celebrating our grandfathers life. I’d like to have the opportunity to speak about him and the impact he has had on every one of us. I’d like to start off with a quote I found after I was asked if I wanted to talk and I feel as though this is an important and applicable quote for this time. “Grief is like the ocean, it comes in waves ebbing and flowing. Sometimes the water is calm and sometimes it is overwhelming. But all we can really do is learn to swim” The hardest part of this all isn’t missing him, because that is easy he has left a remarkable memory on all of us, but having to learn to live without him is the tough part. Our grandfather was one of the best people to walk this earth and I think I can say that for all of us. He was the rock of our family and I don’t think anyone can question that. He had five beautiful kids, a beautiful wife and with this built the foundation of the family we have today. His love for us is what keeps us so close and I couldn’t be more grateful for that. Grampie was the type of grandfather where you could learn life lessons in just one talk. His compassion, hard work, humor, honesty and wisdom are things I am going to miss the most. I have many memories with him and of him but still I don’t feel as though I would be able to truly express the person he was. I often times visited my grandmother and grandfather to catch up on things, see how they were doing and to do things around the house for them and I now realize how important it was for me to be doing that. Grampie was the type of person who seemed to know a little bit about everything and this was one of my favorite qualities about him. He was always up to date on sports, what teams were doing good and what teams weren’t and he was ALWAYS asking questions about us grandkids. I’ll never forget the repetitive story telling from Grampie, even though you’ve heard the same story verbatim over a hundred times, you’d rather listen to it again than tell him you’ve already heard it. Or all of the places he did work at and all of the places he had been. Or all of the stories he used to tell us about my mother, aunts and uncle and all of the things they did to get in trouble when they were younger. I cherish the thought of everything he did for his community and his coaching career and the amount of people who were privileged to have him as a part of them as well as his unforgettable impact on peers and family. And most importantly the love he had for all of us. It’s painful to know I’ve realized how precious time is because of a situation like this and I guess it’s true when they say you don’t know what you have until it’s gone. But I am glad to say I was able to know this wonderful man for 22 years. I’ll miss his toothless smile and his jokes. His emotional tears with even the smallest things. His love for the Steelers even though we are all Patriots fans and his compassion on making sure we were all ok. I’ll never forget the look he gave me after he came to one of my last college softball games this past year. I hit a homerun right to him that day and I’ll never forget the look he gave me or the way his hug felt when I walked up to him after the game. He was so proud of every one of us and the people we have become and are still becoming. Anyone who knew our grandfather knows how much he loved his vodka tonics. Too often you would find him on the back porch shirtless, in his grey shorts his white and blue new balance shoes and a cold drink in his hand and that’s where I want to remember him. If I could have given Grampie just one thing before he passed away, it would have been the ability to see himself through all of our eyes and even then I don’t think he would have been able to realize how special he was to all of us. Grampie I’d like to thank you for your endless love, not only for me but for all of my cousins. Your support in every decision I’ve ever made and your constant reminder of how proud you were of me. I’d like to thank you for the early morning breakfast trips, the rides home from school that I look back on and realize were some of the best times I had with you. The criticism you’d give me on washing the floors even though I was the one doing the work and you were sitting in your chair. And thank you for your constant reassurance of the path I’m on. I so selfishly wish you were here to watch us grow even more than you’ve seen but I know you’ll be with us with every obstacle and every success we have. I’d like to end with the reminder that death only stops a life, it doesn’t stop the love you have for someone and Grampie we will never stop loving you. We are extremely lucky to have had something that makes saying goodbye so hard. Thank you for being our hero.