Before he earned his reputation as a mentor to students and a strong advocate for fellow faculty members at Cal State Stanislaus, Long Beach native Thomas James Young was told he couldn't teach high school because of his disability.
"It was a turning point for him,' said his wife, Sandra. Tom, who as a Cal State Long Beach undergraduate student in the late 1960s, was told by a teaching credential committee (but not the university) that credentialing rules forbade him from teaching because he had epilepsy, Sandra said.

Instead, Tom earned a doctorate in communications and began teaching journalism at CSU Stanislaus in 1981, where many of his students went on to successful careers in the communications field, said university spokesman Don Hansen.

Tom also became an expert in conflict resolution, both as a leader for the California Faculty Association, and in his last post at the school, as the assistant to the president for equal opportunity and internal relations, Hansen said.

Tom died on May 9 at his Turlock home from lung cancer. A smoker, Tom was 55.

"Tom was an ardent spokesman for students, faculty, and our university,' said Fred Hilpert, a communications studies professor at CSU Stanislaus, in a university statement. "He had a tremendous influence on many students.'

As president of the CSU Stanislaus CFA from 1990 to 1994, "Tom had an amazing talent for effectively working well with faculty and administrators, right up to the chancellor of the CSU,' Hilpert said. "He had a bulldog tenacity when he got involved in an issue.'

Tom served as adviser to the university's student newspaper, The Signal, and twice served as chairman of the university's communications studies department, Hansen said.

Tom's experience in discrimination as an undergraduate student helped him in the university president's office, where he served as a key adviser on equal opportunity and nondiscrimination practices, and was a strong advocate for affirmative action, Hansen said.

Tom is survived by his wife Sandra; sons Rob, Jim and Scott; daughters Jacqueline Benner and Kelly Almeida; mother Gloria Young; sisters Patti Castro, Sherry Hargrove and Cindy Burke; and 11 grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held Wednesday at 4 p.m. in Turlock at the CSU Stanislaus campus, 801 W. Monte Vista Ave., in the pergola area next to Village Lake.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Thomas James Young Memorial Scholarship Endowment in Conflict Resolution Management, CSU Stanislaus Foundation, c/o Christine Hollister, Development and University Relations, 801 W. Monte Vista Ave., Turlock, CA 95382.