Editorial Writing
John Young / Waco Tribune-Herald

Across the southern tier of states, it takes courage to oppose "days of solemn prayer, fasting and humiliation before God," and similar expressions of righteousness from our elected officials. John Young has that kind of courage.

He is one of Cox's honored veteran journalists and has been opinion page editor of the Tribune-Herald since 1984.

June 20, 1999

Charter schools were another leading issue in Waco's editorial pages last year. Young's writing about them helped win a Best of Cox award, and so did Jen Sansbury's.

"We had several editorials about charter schools, not only the one locally that flopped so miserably, but also the state's apparent serious lack of oversight for charter schools in general," Young said.

This is his seventh Best of Cox award, with one coming in the humorous writing category in 1997 and the rest split between columns and editorials.

A native of Denver, he was editor of the Valley Tribune, a small daily in Alamosa, Colo., before coming to Texas.

He and his wife, Becky, have two children, Michael and Robert.
Young's hobbies away from the newspaper include sports, reading and movies.

"When you have young children, unfortunately you end up seeing more than your share of movies you don't want to see, and missing the ones you want to see," he lamented.