Donald Gary Young (July 11, 1949 – May 12, 2018) was an American businessman specializing in essential oils and alternative medicine. He was the founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Young Living, a Utah-based multi-level marketing company that sells essential oils and dietary supplements. Early in his career, Young pleaded guilty to the unlicensed practice of medicine, and his company has faced several government investigations.
Early life and education
Young was born on July 11, 1949, into a poor ranching family in Idaho Falls, Idaho.The family's small cabin home had no running water or electricity. His parents were Donald Norman Young and Dolly Adrienne Parsons. The second oldest of six living children (one sister died as an infant), Young grew up in a Mormon household and attended high school in Challis, Idaho.
After graduating, in 1967, he briefly worked for the US Forest Service and then moved to Canada with the intention of homesteading in British Columbia. By Young's account, at the age of 24, he suffered a near-fatal logging accident, and had to use a wheelchair for a time, and he further claimed that while rehabilitating, he began to experiment with essential oils. According to Young's wife, he tried to kill himself three times while recovering from the accident.
According to Business Insider, in December 1973, "after completing a home-study course in nutrition and herbology, he went back to work as a part-time trucker in British Columbia and pursued odd jobs over the next few years", hauling cargo and working on a pipeline in Fairbanks, Alaska. In 1979, Young enrolled at the Burroughs Vita-Flex Institute, "an unaccredited school dedicated to the teachings of Stanley Burroughs".
From 1979 to 1981, Young attended Donsbach Nutrition University, an unaccredited school in Huntington Beach, California operated by Kurt Donsbach, an unlicensed chiropractor. In 1980, Young enrolled in a therapeutic massage program at the “American Institute of Physiogenerology”; however, according to the institute's founder, Young left after attending only a few classes, doing a third of the homework, and owing an unpaid debt for tuition. In the early 1980s, Young spent a quarter-semester at Spokane Community College. He claimed to have earned a doctorate degree in naturopathy in 1985 from Bernadean University, an unaccredited school described as a “mail-order diploma mill”.
Career
In 1982, Young opened a clinic in Spokane, Washington, which offered unlicensed medical services, including childbirth. In 1983, Young was the subject of a joint undercover investigation launched by the Spokane Police Department and the state of Washington. During the course of the investigation, Young offered to deliver a baby, and he claimed that he could detect cancer with a blood test and treat the disease. He was subsequently arrested and charged with practicing medicine without a license, to which he ultimately pleaded guilty. Young was fined $250, given a 60-day suspended sentence, and placed on probation for one year. He was also ordered not to engage in the practice of medicine in Washington and not to violate similar licensing laws in other states.
In 1986 while promoting himself as a naturopathic doctor, Young was operating the Rosarita Beach Clinic in Tijuana, Mexico, offering "detoxification" for cancer and lupus using treatments whose efficacy was questioned in an investigative report by the Los Angeles Times. To test the veracity of Young's clinical diagnosis, a reporter submitted cat and chicken blood to a clinic employee, who failed to determine that the samples were non-human, and further diagnosed that the "patient" had an aggressive form of cancer and liver disease. Young also founded and operated the Young Life Wellness Center, a medical clinic in Chula Vista, California, which in 1988 was ordered by a court judge to be shut down. That year, a complaint was filed against Young by the State of California, alleging "unfair, deceptive, untrue and misleading advertising and unlawful, unfair and fraudulent business practices" regarding Young’s selling and manufacturing of "unapproved medical devices and drugs", and advertising that "he could cure cancer and other diseases".