Ex-FDA Head, Nassau Native Whose Work Led To Cloning, Dies

MINEOLA, NY — Frank Young, a Mineola native who headed the Food and Drug Administration under President Ronald Reagan and made significant scientific discoveries that later led to genetic cloning, has died, according to The Washington Post. He was 88.

Young's son Jonathan told the Post his father died of lymphoma on Nov. 24 at a hospital in North Carolina.

Born in Mineola in 1931, Young later graduated cum laude from the University of the State of New York, Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse with an MD. He later earned a Ph.D in microbiology from Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

He was appointed dean of the School of Medicine and Dentistry and the vice president for health affairs at the University of Rochester before accepting an invitation to become commissioner of the FDA.

Young was sworn in Aug. 2, 1984. He oversaw several major FDA events, including the passage of the Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Act, the opening of the MOD I research facility, the passage of the Prescription Drug Marketing Act, the approval of the first drug to combat AIDS, the institution of a fast-track approval system for AIDS drugs, and presiding over the generic drug crisis.

In December 1989, Young resigned and accepted the position of Assistant Secretary for Health, Science, and the Environment. He served as director of the Office of Emergency Preparedness for three years beginning in 1993 until his retirement from federal service.

In the 1970s, Young's major scientific advances in studying the genetics of bacteria eventually allowed for cloning to become possible, the Post reported. He and a colleague at the University of Rochester discovered a so-called "restriction enzyme" that allowed scientists to change the genetic makeup of DNA.

Young's wife, Leanne Hutchinson, died in 2008. He is survived by five children: Lorrie and Peggy Long of Wilmington, Frank Young Jr. of Sterling, Virginia, Jonathan Young of Bethesda, and Deborah Rapp of Signal Mountain, Tennessee. He is also survived by a brother, 16 grandchildren and two great-grandsons.