A Very Sad Discovery

When this Blog first commenced it recognized the brilliance of John Michael Young, the designer of PRESTAGS.

I never knew until today that John Young (born 2 September 1947) died in May 1978, aged only 30. This was only three years after PRESTAGS was published. I will have a Mass offered for him.

Below are two photographs from early SPI days. In the first photo, John Young is standing next to Redmond Simonsen and his face in hidden. In the second photo, John is sitting down and having a smoke while playing a wargame.

John Young was employed as SPI's accountant and he designed games in his 'spare time'. I read in boardgamegeek that he was assigned to pre 19th century wargame design although he also seems to have designed one American Civil War game and a World War I game.

The games for which he was the primary designer include at least the following:

1. Chariot
2. Spartan
3. Legion
4. Viking
5. Yeoman
6. Borodino
7. Austerlitz
8. The Fall of Rome
9. The Marne
10. Lee Moves North
11. Musket and Pike
12. Rifle and Saber

I pray that John Young is at the great wargame convention in the sky, enjoying a game.

Comments

[phil mowatt]

I remember reading in an S&T that he unfortunately developed a drinking problem that led to his early demise. It's interesting to think of what might have been as he was one of the brilliant lights in game design at the time. I have fond memories of playing some of his games.

[PythonMagus]

I did a bit of homework on John Michael Young this evening, by skimming old S&T magazines. I found his death notice on page 40 of S&T n 69. I also found out that he was a fine water pistol fighter, even in mid winter, in a short piece on page 39 of S&T 66. He first appears in the magazines in issue 23 as a "Numerologist", but was an associate editor by issue 27 when he wrote a great piece on the Campaigns of Alexander (the Great).

John was a game designer for Grunt (S&T 26), a Vietnam War game, Fall of Rome (S&T 39) and Armageddon (S&T 34, a precusor to Chariot). He wrote a number of game play reports, but his style is quite technical, so reveals nothing of himself or is idiosyncrasies.

I share Paul's sadness at the early departure of someone we only now can appreciate.

[Paul]

Even you will struggle to use your cavalry to out manoeuvre angelic intelligences!

[PythonMagus]

Being reading about him, but I can only find your source material in Board Game Geek. I did glean that he let SPI due to illness, perhaps the cause of his untimely death.

Wargames in heaven: Awesome idea! Who sets up the counters?