Meet Sam Young

Sam Young spent more than 40 years living between Naples and Marco Island, but as the area grew more congested, he began looking for a quieter coastal community. A client in Stuart introduced him to the Treasure Coast, and by 2019 he had found a home and made the move east. While on Marco Island, Sam served on the Waterways Advisory Committee and grew frustrated by the lack of attention the City Council gave to the island’s eutrophic waterways. Determined to make change, he ran for office—and won—on a platform focused on improving water quality and restoring local beaches. Sam also worked as a licensed charter captain and served on advisory panels for both the NOAA Fisheries Gulf Council and the South Atlantic Council.

Once settled in Stuart, Sam began searching for ways to stay connected to environmental work and soon joined Florida Oceanographic Society as a volunteer. With his passion for clean water, he felt water quality testing was the best fit and now performs weekly sampling in Zone 8, where Atlantic waters flow into Sewall’s Point. He also lends his skills to seagrass matting and building habitat structures for oyster restoration. Since joining the volunteer team in 2021, he has contributed more than 270 hours.

Sam finds great fulfillment in hands-on restoration, especially knowing that every seagrass mat he helps build will one day support a new, thriving underwater meadow. His weekly water testing also plays an important role, feeding into Florida Oceanographic’s water quality reports and helping track changes over time.

Before retiring, Sam worked in healthcare, specializing in acute care hospitals across South Florida. As a licensed charter captain, he spent countless days offshore, where grouper and snapper were the stars of the trip. Today, he enjoys the freedom of retirement with a schedule full of fishing, diving, gym workouts, and volunteering with local nonprofits. He still makes regular fishing trips to the Bahamas—usually two to four times a year—and cherishes the many memories from his years captaining charters in the Gulf of Mexico.

SNAP SHOT

BORN: Chicago, IL

COLLEGE: BS in Marketing from the University of Illinois Marine Resource Education Program

FAVORITE LOCAL RESTURANTS: Fantinni’s, Gafford, Crawdaddy’s

RECENT BOOKS: Mosty fiction: Mark Greany, Lee Child, John D. McDonald, James Leed Burke. Also reads the physical newspaper front-to-back every morning.

MOVIES, TV, SERIES: Never misses a season of Jack Reacher