Paul Helmer Young, representative of the bond department of the National Bank of Commerce at St. Louis and president of the St. Louis Junior Chamber of Commerce, is one of the most alert, wide-awake and progressive of the young business men of the city. He was born in Lander, Wyoming, July 26, 1896. He is therefore a western man by birth, training and experience and has always been possessed by the spirit of western enterprise and progress which has been the dominant element in the upbuilding of the great empire beyond the Mississippi. His father, the Rev. Benjamin Young, is pastor of the Union Methodist Episcopal church of St. Louis and is mentioned elsewhere in this work.
Paul H. Young was educated in the Lincoln high school at Portland, Oregon, also in the Topeka high school at Tokepa, Kansas, from which he was graduated with the class of 1915, and in the Wesleyan University at Middletown, Connecticut. While a student there he enlisted for service in the European war and became a second lieutenant of infantry in the Sixty-third Pioneer Infantry, which was stationed at Camp Dix, New Jersey, where be received his discharge in December, 1918, following the signing of the armistice.
From January until May, 1919, he was general secretary of the University of Missouri Y.M.C.A. Subsequently he became associated with the United States treasury department, serving in that connection from May until December, 1919, and on the 1st of January, 1920, he entered the National Bank of Commerce at St. Louis as a representative of the bond department. On the same day he was honored by being elected president of the St. Louis Junior Chamber of Commerce, in which important capacity he is now serving. This election was indicative of the high position which he occupied among the business men of the younger generation in the city.
Mr. Young is a member of the City Club of St. Louis, also of the Chi Psi, a Greek letter fraternity, of Missouri Lodge No. 1, A. F. & A. M., and of the Methodist Episcopal church and the Chamber of Commerce associations which indicate the nature of his interests and the rules which govern his conduct.