Michael Henry de Young was an American journalist

Journalist

A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

 and businessman.

Life and career

De Young was born in St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...

, the son of Amelia (née

Married and maiden names

A married name is the family name adopted by a person upon marriage. When a person assumes the family name of her spouse, the new name replaces the maiden name....

 Morange) and Miechel de Young (originally either DeJong or DeJongh), who was a jeweler and dry-goods merchant. The family was Jewish, of Dutch Jewish

History of the Jews in the Netherlands

Most history of the Jews in the Netherlands was generated between the end of the 16th century and World War II.The area now known as the Netherlands was once part of the Spanish Empire but in 1581, the northern Dutch provinces declared independence...

 descent. He moved with his family to San Francisco, California

San Francisco, California

San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...

 while he was still young. There, he and his brother, Charles de Young, (1845–1880) founded the Daily Dramatic Chronicle newspaper

Newspaper

A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...

, first published on January 16, 1865. The Chronicle was the predecessor of the San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco Chronicle

thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...

, San Francisco's only remaining daily broadsheet newspaper. De Young was also the director of the Associated Press

Associated Press

The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...

 for many years. De Young was a Heald College Graduate.

In 1884, he was shot by an irate businessman, Adolph B. Spreckels

Adolph B. Spreckels

Adolph Bernard Spreckels was a California businessman who ran Spreckels Sugar Company and who donated the California Palace of the Legion of Honor art museum to the city of San Francisco in 1924. His wife Alma was called the "great grandmother of San Francisco".-Biography:His father was Claus...

, apparently due to a negative newspaper article, but survived. M. H. de Young died on February 15, 1925 and a Catholic church mass was held in St. Mary's Cathedral (he had converted to Catholicism after marrying his wife, Katherine I. Deane).

Legacy

The M. H. de Young Memorial Museum

M. H. de Young Memorial Museum

The M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, commonly called simply the de Young Museum, is a fine arts museum located in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. It is named for early San Francisco newspaperman M. H...

 in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park

Golden Gate Park

Golden Gate Park, located in San Francisco, California, is a large urban park consisting of of public grounds. Configured as a rectangle, it is similar in shape but 20% larger than Central Park in New York, to which it is often compared. It is over three miles long east to west, and about half a...

 is named in his honor. He helped develop the gem collection for California’s first museum in 1894: "There is now on its way from New York to San Francisco the nucleus of what is destined to be San Francisco's first public museum. It has been purchased by M. H. De Young, the proprietor of the San Francisco Chronicle, who has visited New York in the capacity of Director-General of the San Francisco Midwinter Fair, the project of the museum having grown out of the unlooked-for results of the California Midwinter International Exposition of 1894

California Midwinter International Exposition of 1894

The California Midwinter International Exposition of 1894, commonly referred to as the "Midwinter Exposition" or the "Midwinter Fair", was a World's Fair that operated from January 27 to July 5 in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. In 1892, U.S. President Benjamin Harrison appointed M. H...

. The fair proved a great commercial as well as industrial success, and the Board of Directors has something like a $200,000 surplus. This surplus it was determined to use as a fund for the establishment of a memorial museum, and Mr. De Young was deputed to visit New York and buy here whatever of curious and artistic and instructive value was available and within the funds at command. In that pleasant work the proprietor of San Francisco Chronicle has spent the last two or three weeks-and a good many thousands of dollars. The collection of precious stones which has gone to San Francisco was made by Mr. George Frederick Kunz

George Frederick Kunz

George Frederick Kunz was an American mineralogist and mineral collector.- Overview :Kunz was born in New York City, USA, and began an interest in minerals at a very young age. By his teens, he had amassed a collection of over four thousand items, which he sold for four hundred dollars to the...

 of Tiffany & Co.

Tiffany & Co.

Tiffany & Co. is an American jewelry and silverware company. As part of its branding, the company is strongly associated with its Tiffany Blue , which is a registered trademark.- History :...

, and includes not only examples of such well-known jewels as diamonds, topazes, opals, carbuncles, turquoises, emeralds, arid rubies, but also such rarely heard of stones as asteriated diamonds, alexandrites from Russia, ruby spinels from Burmah, beryls from the Ural Mountains, and Spessartine

Spessartine

Spessartine previously named spessartite, is a nesosilicate, manganese aluminium garnet species, Mn3Al23.The name is a derivative of Spessart in Bavaria, Germany, the type locality of the mineral. It occurs most often in granite pegmatite and allied rock types and in certain low grade metamorphic...

s from Brazil. Then there are monster stones, such as a Carbuncle (gemstone)

Carbuncle (gemstone)

A carbuncle is an archaic name given to any red cabochon cut gemstone. The name applied particularly to red garnet. The word occurs in four places in most English translations of the Bible...

 with facets an inch and a half across, a golden brown topaz as big as a small cocoanut, and a mass of health-giving amber gum as large as one's hand. Such departures from the regular specimens of gems as blue topazes, black and purple pearls, and blue diamonds, and such wonders of nature and art as a saurian’s jawbone converted into jaspers, a string of amber beads, each with its fly, fresh water pearls, agatized wood, Persian turquoises with amulets of gold-filled texts from the Koran.-New York Sun.

It is also known that De Young was the great-great-grandfather of actor Max Thieriot

Max Thieriot

Maximillion Drake "Max" Thieriot is an American actor. During the 2000s, he appeared in several Hollywood films, including My Soul to Take, Catch That Kid, The Pacifier, Nancy Drew, Jumper, and Kit Kittredge: An American Girl.-Career:Thieriot was signed to talent manager Don Gibble after taking...

.

External links

• M. H. de Young biography at BookRags.com