David K. Young directed the Design Studio of B. Altman & Co., the grand department store, at the company’s flagship in Midtown Manhattan. We know little of Young’s life before and after the war.  

 

During World War II, Young served in the Corps of Military Police. In late 1944 he secured a transfer to the MFAA as Monuments Officer for 6th U.S. Army Group in France. One of Young’s first assignments took him to Marseilles, where he conducted inspections of museums, churches, and historic monuments. He reported that Marseille Cathedral, the Musée Des Beaux Arts, the Museum S’Histoire Naturelle, the Musée Cantini, and Musée Grobet Lagadié were unharmed, their collections largely undisturbed with only a few paintings having been removed for safekeeping. Young liaised closely with Monsieur Decanini, Chief of the Service des Beaux-Arts for Marseilles, securing needed supplies and advising on emergency restoration plans. Young also inspected monuments in Tarascon, where he supervised the recovery of reusable materials for the rebuilding of Église Sainte-Marthe de Tarascon, a Romanesque church dating back to the eleventh century.

 

Young continued his work with the MFAA in France until at least December 1944. In early 1945 he was reassigned against the wishes of the MFAA, who tried in vain to keep him.

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The Foundation is very interested in locating someone by this name who served as a Monuments Man. If you have any information, please contact abottinelli@monumentsmenfoundation.org.