John Densmore, drummer of the legendary rock group The Doors, has been named winner of one of two 2010 Santa Monica College Alumni Recognition Awards. He will receive his award at SMC’s 80th Commencement Exercises June 15 and will also offer the graduation remarks.

Also winning an Alumni Recognition Award are Allan and Sally Young, a couple who have dedicated their adult lives to community service through the Boys and Girls Club, YWCA and many other organizations.

Densmore receives the SMC Alumni Recognition Award for Outstanding Professional Achievement and the Youngs are being honored with the SMC Alumni Recognition Award for Distinguished Community Service. The awards are sponsored by the SMC Foundation.

Both will be recognized at commencement, which will be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 15 at SMC’s Corsair Field, 1900 Pico Blvd.

“We are thrilled to be honoring these outstanding alumni who have contributed so much to the world of the arts and community service,” said SMC President Dr. Chui L. Tsang.

Densmore has remained an active musician and writer way beyond his years with The Doors, but has long been associated with the group and its legendary lead singer, the late Jim Morrison. The Doors was the subject of an Oliver Stone feature film of the same name and, this year, was featured in the acclaimed documentary, “When You’re Strange: A Film About The Doors.”

Densmore was far more than merely the rhythmic engine of The Doors. Strongly influenced by jazz skinsmen like Elvin Jones and the supple grooves of the Brazilian wave, he brought a highly evolved sense of dynamics, structure and musicality to his beats.

Inexorably drawn to music from childhood, Los Angeles-born Densmore honed his sense of dynamics playing with his high school marching band. In the mid-’60s he joined guitarist Robby Krieger in a band called Psychedelic Rangers; shortly thereafter they hooked up with keyboardist Ray Manzarek and Morrison, and an explosive chapter in the development of rock ‘n’ roll began. A raft of paradigm-shifting recordings and epochal live performances by The Doors would follow.

Morrison’s death in 1971 marked the end of an era, though the surviving trio recorded two more albums of songs and an instrumental backdrop for the late singer’s recorded poetry. The Doors were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993, and in 2006 they were awarded a Lifetime Achievement Grammy by NARAS® and given a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The versatile musician explored reggae and jazz in subsequent projects, wrote books and articles and became active in L.A.’s adventurous theater community. He earned an L.A. Weekly Theatre Award for the music he created for the Tim Robbins-directed stage production Methusalem. He also co-produced the play Rounds, which was given the NAACP award for theatre in 1987.

Densmore’s autobiography, Riders on the Storm: My Life With Jim Morrison and The Doors, was published in 1991 and was a New York Times bestseller. He's written articles and essays for Rolling Stone, London Guardian and The Nation and has contributed to many nationally syndicated newspapers.

Allan and Sally Young, who have been married for 35 years, have each had a long and distinguished record of community service. Both of the Youngs, along with their grown children Aaron and Sarah, are all graduates of SMC and went on to receive degrees at other local universities.

Allan Young has a long history with the Boys Club of Santa Monica, joining in 1955 and being named Boy of the Year in 1962. In the mid-1970s, Allan began working for the club and this was just the beginning of his life-long devotion to the members of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Monica, to the Santa Monica community and to improving the lives of youth around the world.

Allan is now the Managing Trustee with the Pacific Youth Foundation – a private foundation dedicated to providing resources that improve organizational function and development within the Boys & Girls Club movement in Southern California. Allan’s name is familiar with Boys & Girls Clubs all around the country and he has contributed to the organization at many levels and has received numerous local, regional and national awards from the club, including the highest national honor, the Thomas Garth Leadership Award.

Other accomplishments include founding and helping raise $12 million for the Upward Bound program in Santa Monica that provides housing and job placement for homeless families; being named Executive of the Year by Los Angeles United Way; and being awarded the Rotarian of the Year for the project to help schools in Santa Monica/Los Angeles 1997. In addition, he raised $3.5 million to help build a new Boys & Girls Club and remodel the play areas at John Adams Middle School in Santa Monica and helped raise money for and build new clubs in Inglewood and Tijuana.

Allan is a Vietnam Veteran serving in the United States Navy. He is a member of Rotary Club of Santa Monica and is on the Board of Directors of the Upward Bound House as well as the New Roads School in Santa Monica.

Sally M. Young has spent the last 35 years giving priority to the needs of women and girls through her work as Executive Director for the Girls Clubs of North Orange County and most recently the YWCA Santa Monica/Westside where she served as its Executive Director for 23 years.

Sally has volunteered for projects such as the Jimmy Carter Build and Global Village-Habitat for Humanity and her local YWCA. She is a member of the YWCA World Service Council working to increase support and understanding of the work of the World YWCA.

Sally retired from the YWCA in December 2008 but remains an active volunteer with the YWCA Pacific Region Association Services Committee. Sally enjoys all outdoor activities and has recently taken up woodworking.

Aaron is the President and CEO of the Boys and Girls Club of Santa Monica and Sarah is enjoying her gap year of travel and volunteering in Africa and Asia before she heads to graduate school in the fall.