Young was a community leader in such organizations as the YMCA, Junior Achievement, Spindletop Research, the Red Cross, and the Cancer Drive. He was a University of Kentucky trustee and donated $5 million of his own money while helping raise additional funds to build a new library at the University of Kentucky that would be named the William T. Young Library in his honor. He further created a book endowment and campaigned for donations to fund it. At the time of his death the endowment was the largest of its kind in the United States. William Young was inducted into the College of Engineering Hall of Distinction in 1992. Appointed to the board of trustees of Transylvania University in 1967, he served as its chairman for twenty-three years from 1977 to 2000 and was a most important figure in the university's expansion and betterment.