SR1738LRB099 21340 GRL 47162 r

1
SENATE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois Senate are saddened to
3learn of the death of Dr. Quentin Young, who passed away on
4March 7, 2016 at the age of 92; and
 
5    WHEREAS, Dr. Quentin Young, the son of immigrants, was born
6on September 5, 1923; he grew up on Chicago's South Side and
7graduated from Hyde Park High School; and
 
8    WHEREAS, Dr. Quentin Young became a knowledgeable and
9sought-after physician, but also a passionate advocate for
10public health reform, civil rights, anti-poverty initiatives,
11workers' rights, and health care as a human right; and
 
12    WHEREAS, Dr. Quentin Young served in the United States Army
13during World War II; he received a bachelor's degree from the
14University of Chicago and earned his degree in medicine from
15Northwestern University; and
 
16    WHEREAS, Dr. Quentin Young began his medical training at
17Cook County Hospital and returned, after a stint at Michael
18Reese Hospital, to become its Chairman of Medicine; and
 
19    WHEREAS, Even as he sought to improve health care and
20social services in underserved areas of Chicago, Dr. Quentin

 

 

SR1738- 2 -LRB099 21340 GRL 47162 r

1Young threw himself into the fight for civil rights wherever it
2was waged, registering African-American voters in Mississippi
3during the Freedom Summer, marching from Selma to Montgomery in
41965, founding the Medical Committee for Human Rights to
5provide health care to civil rights activists, campaign
6volunteers, and anti-war protesters, and demonstrating for the
7desegregation of public schools; and
 
8    WHEREAS, Though an accomplished physician and community
9leader, Dr. Quentin Young never let professional ambitions
10override an opportunity to do justice, as he was twice
11terminated from (then re-hired to) his administrative post at
12the Cook County Hospital as a result of disputes with its
13governing body, including over working conditions for young
14staff doctors; and
 
15    WHEREAS, Dr. Quentin Young served as president of the
16Chicago Board of Health and the American Public Health
17Association and co-founded the Health and Medicine Policy
18Research Group; and
 
19    WHEREAS, Dr. Quentin Young was a lifelong advocate for
20single-payer health care and continued to draw attention to
21this cause into his later years, including by walking 167 miles
22across Illinois in 2001 at the age of 77; and
 

 

 

SR1738- 3 -LRB099 21340 GRL 47162 r

1    WHEREAS, Among Dr. Quentin Young's well-known patients
2were Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Chicago Mayor Harold
3Washington, Studs Terkel, Mike Royko, Illinois Governor Pat
4Quinn, and President Barack Obama; and
 
5    WHEREAS, Dr. Quentin Young's family members were partners
6with him in his activism, as he frequently took his five
7children with him to demonstrations and was accompanied by his
8wife Ruth on his march for universal health care; and
 
9    WHEREAS, Dr. Quentin Young is lovingly remembered as a
10passionate, inspirational, energetic, and generous man whose
11legacy is a credit to Hyde Park, Chicago, and Illinois;
12therefore, be it
 
13    RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-NINTH GENERAL
14ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we, along with his
15family and friends, mourn the passing of Dr. Quentin Young; and
16be it further
 
17    RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
18presented to the family of Dr. Quentin Young as an expression
19of our sympathy.