Bobby Young Obituary

North Augusta, SC- Funeral Services for Mr. Bobby Young, 91, who entered into rest on February 8, 2026, will be conducted Saturday morning at 11 o'clock from Grace United Methodist Church, The Rev. Dr. Cathy Jamieson officiating. Entombment to follow in Pineview Memorial Gardens Mausoleums. The family will receive friends at the funeral home Friday evening from 5 until 7 o'clock.

Mr. Young was born August 26, 1934, on a farm just outside Dublin, Georgia. His family moved to Warner Robbins, Georgia after World War II was declared. After the war, the family moved to Wrightsville, Georgia and then to Summertown, Georgia where Bob met his soulmate and graduated from Summertown High School. After graduation in 1952, he went to work at the Savannah River Plant (SRP) construction as welder trainee. After completing his training, he worked as a pipe welder. Bob married his high school sweetheart in 1955, and they moved to North Augusta, South Carolina. He enlisted in the army in 1957. After being discharged from the Army, the pipefitters union sent him to New Johnsonville, Tennessee, then to York, Alabama and then back to SRP as a pipe welder. After a year on the job, Bob was transferred to the Testing and Inspection Department (T&I) as a welding instructor where he trained and qualified welders in welding procedures. After the Chief Welding Inspector retired in 1962, Bob was promoted to superintendent and took over the T&I Department.

Bob received two four-year diplomas from the International Correspondence School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for Metallurgy and Mechanical Engineering. Bob is the only welding engineer to successfully repair three cracks in a nuclear reactor by welding. He is the first to develop welding procedures to weld atomic metals such as columbium, tantalum, zircaloy, and zirconium for the Navals Fuels Project. Tritium was having vendors making unacceptable welds due to the discoloration on the back side which would cause rejection. Bob made a qualified welding procedure that eliminated the problem with tritium. Any discoloration will cause off-gas and contaminate tritium, and this metal is the trigger for nuclear fission. He went as a consultant to every vendor shop that welded vessels for tritium until he retired 1997.

He was a member of two American Welding Society Boards (AWS) for twelve years and a member of the Welding Engineering Standards Board in Wilmington, Delaware for fifteen years. He was the chair of the site Welding Committee that controls the requirements of qualification of welders, code requirements, and welding control procedures. Through this time, he qualified over fifteen thousand welders at SRP during his tenure at the site.

Bob loved Grace United Methodist Church and joined in 1964 and served on most official boards; an usher, men's club, Metts, HEAT, Salkehatchie and Bolivia on a construction trip.

Bob loved to travel and fish. He traveled to all fifty states and fished in both oceans and in the Gulf of Mexico as well as, most southern states.

He wanted to be remembered as a Master Manipulator of Molten Metal and could repair anything by welding, with the exception of a broken heart and the crack of dawn.

In addition to his parents, Mr. Young is preceded in death by his wife of 68 years, Glenice Young; a son, Robert Daniel Young; a brother, Marion Smith Young and a brother-in-law, Chester Skipper. Surviving members of the family left to cherish his memory include his daughter, Angie (Bobby) Oliver; a sister, Evelyn Skipper; three grandchildren, Scott (Billie Ann) Blalock, Ashley Blalock and Ginny (Brock) Heron; five great-grandchildren, Sharlette, Samson, Marina, Jack and Brookes.

Honorary Pallbearers will be the Usher's of Grace United Methodist Church.

Memorials maybe made to Grace United Methodist Church, 639 Georgia Ave., North Augusta, SC 29841.