Thumbnail photo: Local engineer Mike Young and a child at an orphanage in Haiti exchange a hug during one of his visits with Team Redwood, a Northern California-based group of medical professionals and engineers who helped the country recover from the 2010 earthquake. | Photo courtesy of Carolyn Arellanes. Eric Wier wouldn’t be Crescent City manager were it not for Mike Young. “Mike hired me at the city in 2003,” Wier told the City Council on Monday before they observed a moment of silence for Young, who died on March 21 at 84 years old. “I was able to work with him on so many different projects over the years. He taught me a ton about the water and wastewater systems, and then it was Mike who pushed me to put in an application for city manager.” Wier chronicled a life that included a career as Crescent City manager in the 1970s, county engineer in the late 1990s and city engineer and public works director in the early 2000s. Young was interim city manager in 2008 and in 2017 just before Wier stepped into his shoes. Young also worked in the private sector, building his own engineering firm, Michael Young & Associates from 1979 to 1997. Wier said the projects Young worked on include opening Beachfront Park, the Sea Wood Apartments development, Pelican Bay State Prison’s water and wastewater systems and Rumiano Cheese Co. lactose operation. Young was on the St. George Reef Lighthouse Preservation Society board and oversaw the development of the Point of Honor Veterans Monument. He was also a member of the Del Norte Healthcare District Board. Wier said it was through Young’s advocacy that the Healthcare District sponsored swimming lessons for children and pool passes for senior citizens. “Mike was one of those people that never stopped working,” Wier said. “He believed in what God had given him and that was a true talent for engineering and he felt that it was very important to use those talents to their (fullest) extent.” Young brought his engineering expertise to Habitat for Humanity building houses in Mexico as well as Engineering Ministries International, constructing orphanages, hospitals and churches in more than 20 countries worldwide. “One such country was Haiti, and he went back several times,” Wier said. “I was fortunate enough to go with him to Haiti right after the large earthquake that devastated their country and took the lives of over 200,000 people.” One group Young traveled to Haiti with was Team Redwood, which brought medical, dental and vision care to orphanages following the 2010 earthquake. The mission spearheaded a “train the trainer” program focusing on CPR and disaster response, health education, hygiene, clean water techniques and maternal and child nutrition. As an engineer, Mike Young’s work centered around installing safe water systems at the orphanages Team Redwood visited, said Carolyn Arellanes, a physician assistant who has been with Team Redwood since the earthquake. Young, who visited the island nation twice with Team Redwood, was the honorary orphanage grandfather, Arellanes told Redwood Voice Community News. “You could pretty much find him with a child on his back or his shoulder or in his arms or all three of the above while he was working,” she said. At one orphanage, a three-story building that had been accessing water from a cistern using a bucket and a string, Young installed a well with a pump and a filter and pumped all the way to the third story, Arellanes said. “They had real running water, not just a bucket and a string,” she said. “We were definitely looking for engineers and people that could compliment our team, but I was thrilled to take him.” Janine Manny, who was a city employee from 1996 to 2003 before she became a Team Redwood member, said she and Young shared the same philosophy — everything should be fun, even at work. She was delighted to be reunited with Young a decade later during the Haiti mission. “He’s just amazing to give of his own time and abilities to help other people,” Manny said, adding that he was also an effective mentor, not only to her, but also to the people Team Redwood were helping. “He was really good at explaining what they were doing and how people could continue to make that a sustainable (water) system. I think that was important, he was able to break down complex chemical engineering terms so people could understand them.” On Monday, before the City Council’s moment of silence, Wier said Young was not only his mentor, he passed his knowledge on to those he was able to help in Haiti and elsewhere. In addition to installing water systems in Haiti, Wier said, Young gave a class to the architects and engineers in that country focusing on the seismic conditions and how to ensure their buildings are safe. One photo Wier shared showed Young handing a green tag over to a school’s principal indicating that her school was safe. Back home, Young received Crescent City’s Service Above Self award and, in January, the Crescent City-Del Norte County Chamber of Commerce’s Lifetime Achievement award. “So many people aspire to do just a portion of what Mike has actually fulfilled in his life and most people never reach that,” Wier said, paraphrasing Public Works Director Dave Yeager. “Mike reached it in spades and touched so many people.”