The Foreign Service Journal, October 2021

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2021 57 Joel Ehrendreich is a Senior Foreign Service offi- cer currently working in the Bureau of Legislative Affairs. He previously worked as the foreign policy adviser (POLAD) to the commandant of the Marine Corps, and on various assignments in the State Department bureaus of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, South and Central Asian Affairs and African Affairs. In 2011, he won AFSA’s William R. Rivkin Award for Constructive Dissent. He is a member of the FSJ Editorial Board. An Indomitable Spirit Johnny Young 1940–2021 BY JOE L EHRENDRE I CH APPRECIATION J ohnny Young was the ambassador when I arrived for my first tour in Lome, Togo. That he would, during that tour, save my career when it could have been over so quickly is another story. Suffice it to say that the way he risked his reputation to save mine—when he didn’t have to—was the true definition of mercy, which Johnny’s life personified. Indeed, for all who knew Johnny, we remember him first not for his exceptional career accomplish- ments; we recall his humanity, his dignity, his love for people of all nations and backgrounds, and the lasting impression he made on everyone. Together with his loving partner of more than 50 years, Angie, Johnny ran embassies that welcomed not just the employee, but the whole community. b I recall the largeThanksgiving party the Youngs threw in Lome, where our two pre-K children dressed up as turkeys for the play. A few nights later, it became clear howmuch of an impres- sion Johnny and Angie’s warmth made on our 3-year-old son, Cooper. As we read Chicken Little to him before bed, at the point where Henny Penny says, “We must go tell the king!” Cooper cor- rected my wife: “No, mommy, we must tell the ambassador!” Fast forward from that little boy to today. A couple of days after Johnny passed, Cooper joined a dinner with us and another For- eign Service couple who had never met the Youngs. He described Johnny and Angie like this: “After I graduated from college and moved here to start my career, Johnny and Angie heard I was in town and insisted on having me and my girlfriend, now wife, over for dinner. Why they felt they should open their home to children of people they worked with 20 years earlier amazed me. But I tell you what I remember most, is that when I was there, in their presence, there was an aura about them that you could just feel.