Cline Young

Cline Turner Young II, age 74, of Dallas, Texas, departed this life on Saturday, February 8, 2025. Cline is survived by his seven sisters who are scattered all over the USA, many nieces and nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews, as well as many dear friends. He was born August 24, 1950, in Duncan, Oklahoma to Robert Kenneth Young of Abbott, Texas and Mary Louise (Davis) Young of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Cline attended Midwest City High School, Midwest City, Oklahoma where he was an active member of the marching and concert bands, played the clarinet, and graduated in 1968. While a teenager, he was a busy member of the Boy Scouts of America, loved camping and fishing, became a member of the Order of the Arrow, and achieved the rank of Eagle Scout. Cline's college career began as a midshipman at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, Kings Point, Great Neck, New York, where he continued to play the clarinet, and graduated in 1973 with his deck and engine licenses and a rank of Ensign in the U.S. Naval Reserve. Cline then proceeded to travel the world via merchant ships, eventually as Chief Engineer or Second Mate, and in the U.S. Navy Reserve as an Engineering Duty Officer; all of which served to satisfy his adventurous side (and obligations for his degree from the USMMA). Cline visited numerous countries on every continent except Antarctica and traveled most major oceans and seas, occasionally during hurricanes.

After deciding to become a landlubber, Cline earned both his MS degree in Mechanical Engineering in the late 1970s and PhD in Mechanical Engineering in the early 1980s at Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma. He then was an instructor of Mechanical Engineering at Oklahoma State University which segued into his ultimate career investigating and reconstructing mechanical accidents. He continued his love and explorations of music with the clarinet and piano. Meanwhile, his service in the US Naval Reserves continued until he retired in the 1990s.

However, Cline never left his Naval training behind. He always called the kitchen the galley, the bathroom the head, and gave slightly confusing directions such as starboard, port, fore, and aft. He corrected anyone who said "sailor" instead of "seaman." Cline delighted in waking his sisters, nephews, and anyone within earshot by singing/yelling Reveille when he decided it was time for them to wake up. He believed he taught his sisters how to play poker and Wist, of all things. He loved taking his young nephews and niece fishing for tiny perch and teaching them to think of icky worms as good bait. Cline never tired of family members telling the same old family stories over and over and over again. In fact, he requested them at every family gathering!

A graveside service will be coordinated by Marshall & Marshall Funeral Directors of Hillsboro, Texas and held at Bell Springs Cemetery, Abbott, Texas, at 2:00pm, Friday, February 21, 2025, where Cline (or Cline T, as he was always known in Abbott) will be buried near his parents, paternal grandparents, and other Young ancestors including his 3-times great grandmother.

Memorial donations in Cline's name can be made to your favorite charity.