Just one week after announcing that he wouldn’t seek a 23rd term, 82-year-old Representative Bill Young died at Walter Reed Medical Center on Friday (not Thursday) from complications stemming from a chronic injury sustained in a 1970 plane crash, according to his chief of staff Harry Glenn. The Florida Republican and longtime member of the House Appropriations Committee is remembered as a “defense hawk,” with a passion for the armed services and a devotion to his Florida constituents. According to the Associated Press, Young brought “hundreds of millions of dollars in earmarks back to the Tampa Bay area in his 43 years in Congress, and built up a defense contracting industry in the region, creating jobs and stirring the economy.” He was the state’s longest-serving congressman.
