He also volunteered on numerous professional and community boards including those of the Hope Chamber of Commerce, Medical Park Hospital, Hope Parks and Tourism and the Hope Housing Authority Board.
Just after Tuesday evening’s Hope City Board meeting, current mayor Don Still, who mentioned Young and his family in the meeting’s invocation said this:
“Floyd was just a good citizen of Hope. He was already off being a mayor when I came on the board, but was always a community leader. Even when he worked at the college, he was a counselor, and all the kids [he saw] he touched and helped. I was talking to Kenny Muldrew, and he encouraged Kenny to go to college. He said that, and Kenny ended up going into teaching and superintendent. So a lot of people were affected by Floyd. He always had a smile and always an encouraging word. … We were lucky to have him. I pray for his family and his kids, his sons and daughters. So just a good man, good man.”
Hope City Attorney Randal Wright said, “He was an outstanding gentleman, first and foremost, and an individual that, when I came back here to practice law in 1979, was one of the leaders of Hope, recognized as a leader, and always had the ability to ask you ‘What do you think? What do you think about this?’ He never was a person that tried to impose himself on others. He always naturally knew what his strengths were and when to go and ask about what other strengths were, and that's really what helps build a community, that he was a conciliator, an individual that put our community together, and Hope will miss that kind of guy.”
Former Mayor and current member of the Hope Board of Directors Steve Montgomery said, "I never got to serve with him. But I just recall when I was serving as mayor, anytime there was a function, [former Mayor] Dennis [Ramsey] would be there. Mr. Young would be there as well. So we’d get to visit. What he gave the community was outstanding, just serving as mayor here as well. But he'd always talk about that time serving as mayor very fondly, and he really enjoyed it. So I was sad when I heard.”
Also a member of the city board of directors, Mark Ross spoke of his remembrance of Young: “I did not get to serve with him here on the board, but I was involved with him in other community-involvement activities and stuff with the college. He was also on the Hope Housing Authority, so I got to visit with him on several other entities within the city and the county, and he's going to be very missed. He was a very outspoken gentleman, and everybody, [including] a lot of kids, looked up to him as well.”
Hope City Director Reginald Easter said, “He was a church member for years. [While I was] coming up at Rising Star Baptist Church, he guided me through lots of things and to be a great person. As a Black man he told me to not worry about what talk does. 'You be you, a great person with your love for people.' [He was] always a positive person to talk to.”
Among those kids Ross referred to was Hempstead County Justice of the Peace Jessie Henry, who said after Thursday’s Quorum Court meeting, “I remember Mr. Young as a schoolteacher. He taught me from the seventh up into the tenth grade. He was one of our teachers, he was a coach, a good basketball coach, a good community leader. We sat on several boards together in this community. He was a great community leader. He'll be missed. He was a cornerstone for the whole community. Proud man.”
JP Steve Atchley also spoke about his experiences with Young. “He was a great guy, and he was counselor at the high school for many, many years when I was going through high school, and he was an outstanding citizen in the community. He was the first black mayor created in Hope, and he was just an all-around great person.”
JP Vic Ford said, “I thought a lot of folks used this description, ‘I always thought he was a gentleman.’ We were on the same group that was trying to create the academies in the Hope Public School system. And that was a real good exposure to me, to the school system, and him.”
Sylvia Brown, local NAACP chapter president said of Young, “He impacted a number of different constituencies, a number of different people, so that he was known across racial lines and income lines, and he transitioned into counselling and supporting students and families that were challenged. That person with his credibility, but also that quiet leadership, that gentleman’s approach that Mr. Ford talked about, was well- fitted for that.”
Marsha White, NAACP local chapter vice president said, “He was just an all-around guy. Recall last year when we did the black history celebration at the courthouse. He came, and he shared a lot of information as to how the different streets got paved in the north with his money and his family money to get so many sections of the North Side paved. But I was looking forward, actually, to this year, 2026, for him to tell it to more people. But nevertheless, God knew better.”
Young's portrait was displayed in the Hempstead County Courthouse earlier this year during Black History month. He was present at a celebration of the anniversary of the founding of the NAACP. It was at this event that we took the photo below the headline of this story.