Donald S. (Don) Young, professor emeritus of pathology and laboratory medicine at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, died July 4. He was 86.

Dr. Young was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and completed his bachelor of medicine at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland in 1957. In 1962, he earned a PhD in chemical pathology from the University of London, following in his father’s footsteps, who was then chair of the department of pathology at the University of Edinburgh and later became chair of the department of pathology at the University of Aberdeen.

Dr. Young received a Leverhulme Fellowship of Royal Society of Medicine, Royal Postgraduate Medical School, London, and then trained as a registrar (resident) in chemical pathology at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School and as honorary registrar, Hammersmith Hospital, in London. In 1965, he was appointed a visiting scientist in the clinical pathology department at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. He went on to become the chief of the Clinical Chemistry Service at the NIH.

From 1977 to 1984, Dr. Young served as head of the section of clinical chemistry in the department of laboratory medicine at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota. He also served in many capacities for professional organizations, including the Academy of Clinical Laboratory Physicians and Scientists (ACLPS) and the American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC), of which he was president in 1980, and the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry, where he was president from 1985 to 1990. He was also a member of the Expert Advisory Panel on Health Laboratory Services for the World Health Organization.

In 1984, Dr. Young joined the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine as a professor in the department of pathology and laboratory medicine. He oversaw the Division of Laboratory Medicine and the William Pepper Laboratory until 2009. He also held a secondary, clinical position with CPUP in PA Clinical Administration. He retired in 2010 and became an emeritus professor.

For 20 years, he served on the Board of Editors for the journal Clinical Chemistry, which he chaired from 1973 to 1978, and was the recipient of numerous awards, including the American Association for Clinical Chemistry Award for Outstanding Contributions Through Service to Clinical Chemistry, the National Institutes of Health Director’s Award, the Past President’s Award of the American Association for Clinical Chemistry, and the Luigi Mastroianni Clinical Innovator Award of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

Starting in the 1970s, Dr. Young became a very early proponent of automation processes for clinical laboratories, such as robotics and automating time-consuming aspects for specimen sample handling like aliquoting, centrifugation, or load-balancing samples across different analyzers to minimize turnaround-time. Today, these automation processes are the standard of care in clinical labs around the world, but this was not yet the case when the autolab at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania opened in 1997. At the time, the scale of such a project was unprecedented and quite bold in retrospect. During his tenure, he oversaw the advent of point-of-care testing as well. Dr. Young’s wide influence was also evident in the Effects book series—Effects of Drugs on Clinical Laboratory Tests, which he co-authored with JM Hicks and described the effects of disease, drugs, and other pre-analytical variables on lab tests in many editions. In all, Dr. Young co-authored 27 books and more than 200 publications.

According to the tribute posted on his departmental website, his colleagues described Dr. Young as a “tireless, dedicated” professional, who, while “committed to the highest standards,” was a person of “stamina and patience” at the same time, “with an impressive reputation world-wide.” He is remembered as “amiable, encouraging, and very supportive of the faculty and staff,” as a “wise mentor,” as well as a “generous and honorable gentleman.

Dr. Young is survived by his wife, Silja; and children, Gordon, Robert, and Peter.

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