Dear Friends of Cetana,

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Lois Dickason Young, cofounder of Cetana with her brother David Dickason, her late sister Jean Dickason, and Lois’s late husband Jack Young over 30 years ago. Lois passed away peacefully in Penney Farms, Florida on the morning of July 8.

Lois, as many of you know, grew up in Burma, now Myanmar. Her parents, Frederick and Bertha Dickason, a college professor and nurse, respectively, served as educational and medical missionaries there for decades. The Dickason children, Jean, Lois, and David, felt a great attachment to the country. In 1993, when Burmese educators distraught about the disruption of higher education in Burma appealed to them for help, Jean, Lois, David, and Lois’s husband Jack responded. They recruited a board, founded a public foundation they named Cetana (meaning “to give without expectation of recompense”), and began, with the support of friends and an advisory board in Burma, to raise funds to support the education of the country’s youth. The organization grew over the years, eventually developing partnerships with other organizations in the U.S., Myanmar, and Southeast Asia in general, providing scholarships, setting up English learning centers, launching young learners and teacher-training programs, establishing programs that expanded access to books and professional journals, and producing thousands of illustrated trilingual dictionaries (in English, Burmese, and Myanmar’s ethnic languages).

Lois was an enthusiastic proponent and often the originator of many of these ideas. In addition, she and Jack initiated yearly friendship-building trips to Myanmar. Those trips introduced more than 80 Americans to the beauty and challenging realities of life in that country. Many of you who traveled with Lois and Jack have become Cetana’s most loyal supporters. In recent years, since the death of Jack in 2010, Lois took a strong leadership role on the foundation’s board. Her unfailing love for the country and her boundless optimism and energy have helped Cetana persevere even in the face of the tragic events of February 2021. When Lois proposed that we return to Cetana’s original mission, which was to support Myanmar youth studying abroad, the board named the new scholarship program the Dickason-Young Family Scholarship, in honor of the family that had done so much for the country. The scholarship launched in 2022 and has already benefited four students aiming to be teachers. The Cetana board is determined that this scholarship program, with your support, will continue to provide help to the youth for whom Lois and her family always advocated.

Lois was a remarkable person, a loving wife and mother, and a loyal friend to many. Our hearts go out especially to her children, Jenny Young Suddath, David Young, and Charles Young, and to her grand- and great-grandchildren. As friends and as colleagues on the Cetana board, we are grateful for Lois’s long and inspirational life. For a full obituary, click here.