Keith’s Obituary On February 21, 2019, Keith Paul Young Sr. died at home in Sacramento after a brief illness. He was 89. Keith was born in Hollywood, California, the only one in six generations of his family who was not born in Texas.
During his youth he attended public schools in California, New York, and Illinois, moving frequently for his father’s business. He studied industrial engineering at Stanford, graduating in 1951. In 1952, he married Jere Snider of Sacramento, also a graduate of Stanford, and in the years to come they welcomed three children: Kathe, Nancy, and Keith Jr. In 1957, Keith moved his young family to Dallas and built a milk bottling plant in Grand Prairie, Texas, which he named the Jere Dairy.
Anticipating changes in the milk business, he sold the dairy and explored other lines of work, until in 1973, he and a friend were approached to buy a new but underperforming Chevrolet dealership in East Dallas. During negotiations the friend left the process, and upon Chevrolet’s approval, Keith renamed the dealership Young Chevrolet. Of the experience Keith liked to say that because he brought business acumen to the deal but had never worked in a dealership before, Chevrolet “didn’t expect him to thrive”.
However, he did thrive, and for 30 years he ran the dealership day to day, turning it not only into one of the largest Chevy dealerships in Dallas, but also one of the largest GM parts departments in the southwest. In 1982, his wife Jere died in Dallas. Later that year he married Anne Dozier, a recent widow and a close friend of Jere’s, also of Sacramento and a Stanford grad.
In the years to come the couple lived in both Dallas and Sacramento. In addition to running the dealership, Keith led an active life with Anne that included world travel, enjoyment of classical music and opera, sailing, flying his airplane, antique car racing and rallies, woodworking, boatbuilding, reading history books, and summers spent with family and friends at Lake Tahoe. A highlight was his participation in the 5th Peking to Paris Motor Challenge in 2013, with Keith Jr. as his driving partner, followed by a family party in Paris.
Keith was predeceased by two of his children, Kathe Young Griggs of Houston and Keith Young Jr. of Dallas. He is survived by his wife Anne, his daughter Nancy Young Dorociak, step-daughters Betsy Dozier Salomon and Annette Dozier, 11 grandchildren, and 6 great-grandchildren.
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