Richard Young
Richard Young and Judy Dockery Young have co-authored nine books. Richard was born in Huntsville Texas, the son of a Scots-English-Seneca-Indian father/college educator and a French-English mother from a pioneering Texas Family, the Farines of the La Reunion settlement outside Dallas that disbanded in 1857.
Richard's father was at one time a Spanish teacher, as was his uncle Homer, and Richard visited Mexico frequently from early childhood. A two-year assignment in Ecuador for the U.S. State Department took the family to Quito, high in the Andes when he was a boy. Returning to the United States, Richard grew up as a Texan with a wide prairie upbringing and a Hispanic flair.
Moving to Siloam Springs, Arkansas when his father assumed a teaching position at a small evangelical university. Richard earned his BA in Romance Languages and an MA in the Humanities. Taking a teaching position during the teacher shortage after he graduated, Richard became a high school teacher where he learned to engage young people with stories.
Richard began summer seasons at Dogpatch, USA, theme park near Jasper, Arkansas, where he rose in seven seasons to become Character Director. When financial troubles hit Dogpatch, he moved first to the Great Passion Play in Eureka Springs, then to Silver Dollar City theme park outside Branson, Missouri, as a character actor and storyteller. Richard retired from teaching to pursue acting and storytelling full-time.
Married to Judy Elaine Dockrey, Richard and Judy have co-authored nine books. They have appeared on "Storytellers' Theater" on the Americana Network and have been featured performers at Homestead National Monument, Nebraska; Petit Jean State Park, Arkansas.