Young Defended

Regarding the article about Herbert J. Young of Gibraltar Savings in Beverly Hills (“Gibraltar Savings, Hurt by Losses, Replaces Young,” March 5):

I have known Herbert Young for 35 years on both a business and personal level. I am also a stockholder of Gibraltar Financial, the parent of Gibraltar Savings. Young always has conducted himself in an exemplary manner and has been a great credit to the savings and loan industry as well as to Gibraltar Savings, which grew from a small institution with only a few branches when he took charge to a $15-billion, 92-branch financial giant ranking among the 10 largest savings institutions in the nation.

Young also has been a great supporter of his community, having been a member of the Beverly Hills School Board and a director of the temple he and his family worshipped in. With reference to the sarcasm about his marrying the boss’s daughter, Young married his high school sweetheart before her father, Sidney Barlow, acquired Gibraltar Savings.

Times staff writer Tom Furlong obviously had very little, if any, background on Herbert Young. How painful it must have been for him to read about himself and the company that he spent 35 years of his life building. If Furlong had the integrity of Herbert Young, this article would never have been written. Gibraltar’s press release of the retirement would have sufficed. Shame on the Los Angeles Times.

IRVIN SHIFFMAN

Beverly Hills