The Peru Gazette

Peru – Bill Derrick died on August 27, 2014, surrounded by family in his Peru, New York home after a long fight with lymphoma. He was 85. Many knew Bill as the Director of the Campus School at SUNY Plattsburgh, a teacher at St. John’s Academy, and a local businessman in masonry heaters and wood stoves. Others knew Bill as a member of both the St. Augustine’s choir and Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Plattsburgh. He is probably best known in his retirement as a modern day “Johnny Appleseed” sharing his homemade dried apples and other North Country foods with friends, neighbors, and those in need.

Bill was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, the son of William Wesley and Elizabeth (Meadows) Derrick. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1949-1952, during the Korean War and then went to the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley where he later took his first job as a teacher, a career that carried him to the U.S. Department of Defense Schools in Europe from 1954-1962. It was in Germany that he met his wife, Virginia Johnson Derrick, also a teacher, from Chisholm, Minnesota. During his last overseas teaching assignment in Paris, he served as President of the US Department of Defense Overseas Teachers Association.

Bill returned to the US in 1962 to continue a career in higher education, which brought him and his family from Chicago, Illinois to Kent, Ohio and next to SUNY Albany, where he earned a PhD in 1973. Bill moved his family to Peru, NY in 1974 to become the Director of the SUNY Plattsburgh Campus School, where he instituted Northern New York’s first bilingual education program. He taught English at St. John’s Academy from 1982-86 before retiring from education to work full time in his wood-heating business.

In addition to selling wood stoves, tending 10 grandchildren, and hosting “gentlemens’ lunches” for other members of the Peru community, Bill’s other passion was riding his bicycle, regularly logging over 1000 miles each summer on the North Country and Quebec back roads, right up until last summer at the age of 84.

Bill is survived by his wife of 57 years, Virginia; son William Michael Derrick, his wife Kathy and their children, Ryan, Kaitlin, William and Henry of Colorado Springs, Colorado; daughter Mary Beth Peabody, her husband Michael and their children, Hannah, Maeve and Asa of Keene, New York; and son Timothy Kent Derrick, his wife Veronica and their children, Charlotte and Aurora of Mill Valley, California.

Calling hours will be held Friday, September 5, 2014 from 3 to 5 pm at the Hamilton Funeral Home, 294 Mannix Road, Peru. A memorial service will follow at 5 pm at the Funeral Home Chapel with Rev. Philip T. Allen and Msgr. Peter R. Riani celebrating.

In lieu of flowers, please send donations in Bill’s memory to the Peru Free Library or Hospice of the North County.

Arrangements are in the care of the Hamilton Funeral Home, 294 Mannix Road, Peru, 643-9055. To light an online candle and offer condolences in the memory of Bill Derrick please visit www.hamiltonfuneralhome.com