D. Gary Young Legacy Booklet

D. GARY YOUNG
A legacy
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“The man is a success, who leaves the world
“If you’re not living on the edge,
better than he found it; who never lacked
you’re taking up too much space.”
appreciation of earth’s beauty; who looked for
the best in others and gave the best he had.”
D. GARY YOUNG

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GARY’S LIFE
AND YOUNG LIVING
By Mary Young, Young Living Co-Founder and CEO
To explain Gary’s accomplishments seems
vast. He spent 35 years studying the benefits
and perfecting the extraction of essential
oils, while building a $1 billion global business
designed to share what he deemed “the gift”
of essential oils with millions of people.
Described as a modern pioneer, Gary was
part inventor and part historian. He was
determined to discover the ancient practices
and benefits of herbs, plants and trees
that had been lost to the modern world. His
research took him to the remote corners of the
earth, and often back in time, to learn about
the power that Mother Nature offered.
Gary was born July 11, 1949, in Idaho Falls,
Idaho, and grew up in the mountains of
Challis, Idaho, with his parents and five
siblings living in a 30 x 30-foot cabin without
running water or electricity. In 1967 he loaded
his belongings into a truck and moved to
British Columbia, and in 1968 he was granted
320 acres in the Cariboo District where he
began logging.
After five years of logging and ranching,
Gary suffered debilitating injuries in a serious
logging accident and was confined to a
wheelchair with no expectation of walking
again. Channelling the cowboy spirit of “not
backing down,” he began to explore different
avenues to natural healing. It was on this path
where Gary was introduced to essential oils.
By 1983 Gary had moved to Southern
California, enrolled at a naturopathic college
and built a research centre in Rosarito Beach,
Baja California, Mexico. Thirteen years after
his accident, he still suffered constant pain,
even as he walked.
His first true introduction to essential oils came
when he attended a medical conference in
Geneva, Switzerland, where medical doctors
were presenting their research on essential
oils. He returned to the U.S. with 13 different
essential oils to begin his own research.
He found the benefits to be astounding and
his determination to achieve physical and
emotional wellbeing, combined with his
lifelong love of nature, drove him to learn
everything about essential oils.
Having grown up farming, it was natural
for him to want to learn about growing the
plants and producing the oils, which took
him to France to learn the art of distillation
under Mr. Henri Viaud, the French “father of
distillation” in Provence, France, and Marcel
Espieu, the president of the Lavender Growers
Association.
In 1988 Gary sold his research centre in Baja
California and moved to Reno, Nevada, where
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he began his essential oil business. A year
later he moved his business to Spokane,
Washington, and began building a
marketing company to expand his teachings
about essential oils to as many people as
possible. That was the origin of the presentday
Young Living Essential Oils company.
A rancher at heart, he purchased his
first farm of 160 acres in May 1992 in the
mountains of St. Maries, Idaho. On this farm
the first lavender, clary sage, thyme and
peppermint were planted; and it became a
testing facility for new distillation practices.
In 1993 Gary’s company in Riverton, Utah,
became Young Living Essential Oils; and in
1994 it was incorporated. He then bought
another 160 acres in Mona, Utah, in 1995
and started a new farm.
Gary began looking internationally to
discover new plants that could be distilled
and brought to Young Living. Young
Living became global when it expanded
to Ecuador in 2006, starting with 2,300
acres of raw, unusable jungle land to begin
farming. Gary also found an opportunity
to help the children in the rural community
of Chongon and founded the Young Living
Academy. It was completed in March 2008;
and by 2018, 350 students had attended,
with 100 percent of the students from the
first graduating class celebrating their
commencement in March 2016.
In 2009, on a mission to document the
different frankincense and myrrh species still
growing in Yemen, Gary travelled to Yemen’s
“Forbidden Zone” to see the remains of the
ancient civilisation that was once the centre
of caravan trading, which included the
precious frankincense and myrrh resins. He
travelled to Oman to continue his research;
and while walking through the markets,
he saw thousands of bags of frankincense
resin being sold. This inspired Gary and
gave him the desire to build a distillery in
Salalah; and in January 2010, Young Living
opened the first large commercial distillery
for the extraction of Sacred Frankincense
(Boswellia sacra) essential oil.
Gary was passionate about providing only
the highest quality oils, sourced from Young
Living and partner farms and suppliers who
met our standards, which was the beginning
of Young Living’s proprietary Seed to Seal®
programme. We ensure genuine, pure
essential oils with verified testing and careful
monitoring (Seed), through harvesting and
distillation to the final bottling (Seal), which
shows our commitment to quality.
Young Living is well-known for its beautiful
fields of lavender, but Gary knew that we
would continually need more; so with the
help of Jean-Noël Landel, his friend and
lavender growing partner of 20 years;
Benoît Cassan, the president of the French
Lavender Growers Association; and Jean-
Marie Blanc, the farm manager who
oversees Young Living’s planting, cultivating,
harvesting and distilling in France, they
merged their farms in southern France to
create the Young Living Simiane-la-Rotonde
Farm, one of the largest true lavender farms
in the world.
In the early days when Gary was studying
in France, he gathered seeds from the true
lavender plants, brought them home and
planted them on his first farm in Idaho.
About 20 years later, the French farmers
began struggling to preserve their crops
against viruses and fungus. At this critical
time, Gary brought seeds back to France
from the true lavender he had propagated
in Idaho many years earlier. These seeds
have grown into the only thriving lavender in
Provence, France.

Young Living, while based in the United
States, has international offices in Canada,
Australia, South Africa, Singapore, Japan,
Malaysia, the United Kingdom, Ecuador,
Mexico, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Taiwan.
We have 24 corporate and partner farms,
more than 3,000 employees and over 6
million members. Young Living Essential Oils
will continue to grow and share Gary’s vision
around the world.
employees, and our millions of members,
together, we will carry Gary’s torch forever
forward, bringing our message to those
waiting for a new message of wellness
and abundance. Gary had the utmost
confidence in Jared and the executive team
and was at peace knowing the company
is well-positioned to follow the path he
envisioned over 25 years ago when we
started Young Living.
As Gary travelled the world, he saw people
in need everywhere and wanted to help,
which brought about the incorporation of
his Foundation, which is constantly growing
and helping thousands.
Gary’s research has led him to the far corners
of the earth, making amazing discoveries
that have advanced the knowledge of
essential oils for the wellbeing of mankind.
But perhaps the most important role
essential oils played in his life was bringing
the two of us together in our marriage of 25
years. We met at an expo in the Salt Palace
in the centre of Salt Lake City and were
married in 1994. We are blessed with two
sons, Jacob and Josef.
Now, as the CEO of Young Living Essential
Oils, the company that Gary and I
founded together, my quest is to continue
carrying Gary’s vision to the world. I feel
blessed to have worked in the direct sales
industry as a distributor for 10 years prior
to Young Living, which gives me a terrific
advantage in understanding our business
from the member viewpoint. It’s a delicate
balance with corporate and the field, and I
absolutely love it.
I believe Gary and I were the perfect match,
with Gary, the visionary, and me, the realist;
and with Jared Turner, president and COO,
our wonderful executive team, dedicated
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BUILDING
his legacy
To honour Gary’s memory and legacy, Young Living’s industry-leading Research and Development
department was renamed as the D. Gary Young Research Institute. This name serves as a continual
reminder that Gary’s vision, expertise and commitment to quality are forever fully infused into
our product research and development efforts. Many of the highly-trained scientists at the D.
Gary Young Research Institute worked side-by-side with Gary in the lab and have absorbed his
approach, wisdom and intentions when it comes to developing new products for Young Living.
We’re thrilled to honour Gary’s legacy with the D. Gary Young Research Institute as we carry his
tradition of quality and innovation forward for generations to come.
12,000 acres. 18.75 square miles. That’s how much land Young Living donated to the state of Utah
to create the D. Gary Young Wildlife Sanctuary, ensuring that local flora and fauna can recover
and flourish. Young Living, The Nature Conservancy and the Utah Department of Transportation
partnered to help protect the delicate ecosystem of the Duchesne River and retain its natural
path. As part of the conservation effort, Young Living is also growing native plants in the most
depleted animal crossings and migratory routes to help local animal populations recover. This
property is one of the largest land donations the state of Utah has ever received, and we are
proud to represent the Young Living 5×5 Pledge in such a dramatic way!

Happi Magazine
Good Things Utah
Better Homes & Gardens
Fox 13 Good Day Utah
Woman’s Day
Women’s Health
THE D. GARY YOUNG,
People Magazine featuring Savvy Minerals ®
YOUNG LIVING FOUNDATION
Gary not only created the D. Gary Young, Young Living Foundation, but he also befriended those
he served along the way. Here’s what the D. Gary Young, Young Living Foundation accomplished
last year:
5X MORE PEOPLE EMPOWERED
Helped 45,765 people through 5,542 volunteer
hours and $437,661 in donated products.
Launched the D. Gary Young Leadership
Endowment, providing scholarships to
YL Academy graduates
Saw the
expansion of
the Hope for
Justice Shine
School come
to completion
Funded Healing Faith
Uganda's new mobile
malaria treatment unit to
help fight disease in areas
where 60-90% of people
test positive for malaria
Rebuilt and restored six schools in Nepal
and one school in the Philippines,
helping provide education to
1,500 MORE STUDENTS
BROKE GROUND
ON THE SECOND
MALARIA CENTRE
DONATED $100,000
to All Hands and Hearts to accelerate
restoration efforts in the Bahamas and
flood-stricken areas of Texas
Completed a new women's
co-op centre in Nepal that
offers microloans and
business training to
2,500 WOMEN
Opened a new
Lighthouse centre in
Uganda to help survivors
of human trafficking
Celebrated the fourth
graduating class at the
YL ACADEMY
Empowered local communities
with our first annual
EMPLOYEE SERVICE DAY
DONATED $70,000
to firefighting and reforestation efforts in
the wake of the Amazon fires
Worked with partners
like Hope for Justice,
Healing Faith Uganda,
Sole Hope and All
Hands and Hearts
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EN #33922
We call it
SEED SEAL®
TO
It’s not a slogan—it’s our calling.
D. Gary Young surrounded by
lavender, May 1999