Roxey Chester Young was born in East St. Louis, Illinois, son of Roxey Emmett Young and Mary Jeannette (Stofiel) Young. He died on February 22, 2017 in Springfield, Missouri. He was nearly 96. A retired architect who long shared his professional knowledge with adult education students, he enjoyed music, theater, and the visual arts, as well as fine dining. Through these interests he gained many friends through the years.
Roxey is survived by his sister, Mary Grace Aycock, of Swansea, IL, son Mark C. Young, of Springfield, MO, daughter Patrice J. Young, of Pt. Richmond, CA, step-son Jerry-Mac Johnston, of Springfield, MO, and granddaughter Casey J. Young, of Springfield, MO.
Roxey grew up in East St. Louis, where he lived with his mother, younger sister, and his mother’s sisters. He was a veteran of WWII, stationed in the U.S. and doing two tours, both along the East Coast. His final discharge was after serving at the Pentagon.
While in the Army, he met the daughter of his mother’s girlhood friend, living in East Rockaway, NY. Roxey married Jeanette Clark on April 12, 1946, and they lived in Washington, D.C., in Army housing. Their son, Mark, was born a year later, on April 14, 1947. After discharge from the Army, Roxey and family moved back to his family home in East St. Louis, IL, while he made use of the GI Bill to get his professional architecture degree at Washington University in St. Louis.
After college graduation in 1953, the Young family moved to Springfield, Missouri thanks to an offer of work as an architect for the Frisco Railroad. As his career developed, Roxey moved on to working for architectural firms, including a partnership. These were Harold Casey and Associates, Tibbitts and Young, and Paul Rich. Major projects he was involved with include an addition to the original Springfield Art Museum. He also worked on Holland School, a dorm at what was then Southwest Missouri State University, and the Kappa Alpha Fraternity house at then Drury College, as well as designing and building some very distinctive homes for local residents. He was also chief architect of the Lander’s Theater remodel. Outside of Springfield, Roxey worked on the design and construction of a tuberculosis sanitarium in Mount Vernon, among other projects.
Active on the community level, Roxey was particularly involved in local theater, working in the area of set design and construction initially for what would become Springfield Little Theater, long before the Lander’s Theater building was in the picture. His skill in this area was spontaneously acknowledged by standing ovation when the curtain was raised on opening night of the drama Desperate Hours. His young son was in attendance and was amazed by the crowd reaction.
For a few years prior to retirement, Roxey and wife Marie moved to St. Louis to work with Hospital Building Enterprises, a nationwide firm specializing in hospital construction. After a few years of enjoying city life, they returned to Springfield to settle into a slower lifestyle among friends both old and new.

Roxey’s first wife, Jeanette Young, passed in June 2006. In August 2007, his wife Marie departed this life. In the intervening years to the present, Roxey moved gracefully into older age. With a little help from his friends, he threw himself a 90th birthday party that was a real bash. He took a Christmas cruise of the Danube, and took a car and train trip to the upper Midwest and Chicago. He listed and sold his home in one weekend while on the latter trip, letting “the boys” do all the heavy lifting and division of tools, and moved his essentials into a fifth floor independent-living building. During that period he also traveled out to San Francisco Bay to visit his widowed daughter and attend the Tall Ships festival. He and son Mark traveled to San Francisco in 2010 to see daughter Patrice graduate with her master’s degree in music.
Roxey lived his life well and grew into a mature man of wisdom. He will be missed by all who knew him.
Floral memorials may be sent to Greenlawn Funeral Home East, 3540 E. Seminole, Springfield. We suggest memorial donations be made to Springfield Contemporary Theater or the charity of your choice.
Services for Roxey will be at 12:30 pm Tuesday, March 7, 2017 at Greenlawn Funeral Home East. Interment will follow with full military honors at Missouri Veterans Cemetery