The Reverend Mike Young, Minister,
The First Unitarian Church of Honolulu
2500 Pali Highway Honolulu,
HI 96817 (808)595-4047
FAX by arrangement (808) 595-4037
Page updated Friday, May 02, 2008

A Brief Biography

Rev. Mike Young has been the minister of the First Unitarian Church of Honolulu since 1995. A native of Southern California, Mike was raised literally in the shadow of Disneyland. It was built on his high school algebra teacher's orange grove. Rev. Young is a graduate of the University of Redlands and of Andover Newton Theological School.

Rev. Young was UU Campus Minister at Stanford University and Assistant Minister of the Palo Alto Unitarian Church from 1965 to 1969. From 1969 to 1982 he served the Unitarian Society of Los Angeles-West and was a Juvenile Probation Officer in a unique Police/Probation Unit that he helped design for Los Angeles County. In 1982, he went to be minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Tampa, Florida.

In 1967, Mike came to Hawaii to fill in for then minister Gene Bridges for a month while Gene was on sabbatical. He fell in love with the church, the islands, and this incredible culture. Every time the job was open, he tried to get it. It took 28 years, but in 1995 he finally got it.

Rev. Young has been very active in the communities he has served. He is active with Faith Action for Community Equity (F.A.C.E.), a faith based community organizing project, currently involving 24 local congregations--Protestant, Catholic, Jewish and Buddhist.

Rev. Young is an active member of the local A.C.L.U. chapter and on the Board of All Believers Network. He is a Department of Justice appointee to the Patient Protection Committee at Hawaii State Hospital, and was Vice-President of Save Our Constitution, a member of the Board of the Needle Exchange Program, and of the Coalition Against Sexual Assault.

In Florida, he was President and one of the original organizers of the Florida Consumer Action Network, the strongest citizen lobby group in Central Florida. He was active on the ACLU Board and the Planned Parenthood Advisory Board. He was for five years President of the Tampa/Hillsborough County Human Rights Council and was responsible for getting "sexual orientation" added to the Human Rights Ordinances of the City and County. He was on the Police Chief's Advisory Committee and actively involved in cleaning up a racist police department.

Rev. Young has been the recipient of a number of honors including the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Drum Major for Justice award in 1991 from the Tampa African-American community.

He is married to Nancy "SALT" Young, an artist, sculptor and retired teacher. They have three teenagers currently in residence: 14 year old son, Daniel, 16 year old niece Jamie, 16 year old Russian exchange student, Kamil; and two grown children, Joshua and Caprice.