Bernard William Young passed away Friday, January 26th, 2018, at UnityPoint Health-Trinity, Rock Island following a very short illness.  He was 98. Visitation is 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 pm on Thursday at Wheelan-Pressly Funeral Home and Crematory, 3030 7th Avenue, Rock Island.  A Mass of Christian burial will be at 10 a.m. Friday, at St. Pius X Catholic Church, in Rock Island. Inurnment will be at National Cemetery, Arsenal Island. Memorials may be directed to the Rails to Trails Conservancy (railstotrails.org). Barney was born July 2, 1919, in Moline, the son of William L. and Gertrude Hartman Young. He graduated from Rock Island High School in 1937.  With 33¢ an hour pay he earned as an apprentice tool and die maker, he took flight lessons at the Moline Airport without telling his mother.  He soloed in 1941, and completed his commercial license in 1943.  When the Army sought pilots prior to WWII, he was one of three local volunteers. His early war service was spent ferrying new airships for transfer to overseas and instructing new pilots.  When the Burma Road was cut by the Japanese in 1942, he volunteered to join the China–Burma–India airlift that kept China supplied.  Sporting radios that reached only 30 miles, subject to icing and winds of 125 to 200 mph, and surprise mountainsides, Barney survived 116 missions.  Three years ago this month, he was belatedly awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. On return to the States, he kissed the ground and joined the railroad (a family tradition).  After a catastrophic knee injury in 1964, he reacquired a multi-engine instrument-rated flight instructor's license, and worked providing flight instruction and book-keeping.  In 1967 he was able to return to the Rock Island Arsenal as a tool and die maker, plus continuing with taxes and flight instruction.  After teaching the commanding general of the Arsenal to fly in the early 1970's, he became a pilot for Weapons Command until his retirement in 1983. A founding member of St. Pius, he came from a line of socially conscientious Roman Catholics.  The Greater Metropolitan Area Housing Authority was founded by his father in 1939, who chaired the agency's board until his death in 1962.  Barney was asked to assume the last few months of his father's appointment as commissioner, in which he remained without interruption until his death. At the age of 69, he took up cycling, logging 50,000 miles by age 87.  He danced into his early 90's, until he could no longer hear the beat of the music. Barney is survived by sons, Peter (Heather), San Francisco; Patrick ("Esti"), Rock Island; granddaughter, Maureen (Michael); and great-grandson Barney, Portland, Oregon; granddaughter, Erin, San Francisco; numerous nephews and great-nieces, and a special friend and ride-partner, Mary Dorch.  He was preceded in death by his wife, Doris, in 1975; and his brother, Harold, in 1988.

Online condolences may be left for the family at wheelanpressly.com