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I'm sure there are many newer members who don't know all the facts. I need to update the "New Members" post #1 just a little. Anyway, here's Derek's obituary from the Naperville Sun in June 1994. Today would have been his 46th birthday. Seems odd to think of him like that. I still miss my boy.
“Every blade in the field - Every leaf in the forest - lays down its life in its season as beautifully as it was taken up.” ― Henry David Thoreau
Couple'a short stories about Derek, some of you have heard these before, I'm sure.
Derek was a self-taught sign language interpreter. He and friends started with finger spelling in about 3rd grade so they could "talk" in class. He continued with it into serious American Sign Language thru high school, even got license to interpret in business meetings. Made pretty good pocket money doing that. After he was in the army in DC, he met some deaf students from Gallaudet and became friends. He then volunteered for the TDD desk at the university and eventual became the only hearing student who wasn't also on official staff. Just a hint of the kind of guy he was.
After the army, he attended University at Southern Illinois and was appointed "Dorm Mother" in the deaf dorm. Working toward his bachelors, he had decided to move his major to Law, with the intention of becoming an advocate for the deaf. I know he would have been successful. When we picked up his stuff in South Carolina, among his effects was a Constituional law book, his reading for the weekend. Yes, we returned it to the school library.
'Nother story from his High School days: Chrismas of about 96 or so, he went to do some "shopping". Didn't hear from him for hours, had no clue??? Finally, about 10, he called. He was in the UP visiting a young lady he had met at Revolutionary reenactment. We called her "wolf girl" because he dad raised mixed breed wolf dogs. BTW, he was driving one of these, Honda Z600 Coupe, 2 cylinder, air cooled:
Yes he was grounded for a week when he got home. No, he didn't understand why.
I could go on for hours, and have done. Ask me anything, you'll be sorry.
Happy his brother Adam has turned into a fine guy as well, husband and father and dedicated local cop in Illinois. We remember Derek every birthday and every Memorial Day.
“Every blade in the field - Every leaf in the forest - lays down its life in its season as beautifully as it was taken up.” ― Henry David Thoreau
Couple'a short stories about Derek, some of you have heard these before, I'm sure.
Derek was a self-taught sign language interpreter. He and friends started with finger spelling in about 3rd grade so they could "talk" in class. He continued with it into serious American Sign Language thru high school, even got license to interpret in business meetings. Made pretty good pocket money doing that. After he was in the army in DC, he met some deaf students from Gallaudet and became friends. He then volunteered for the TDD desk at the university and eventual became the only hearing student who wasn't also on official staff. Just a hint of the kind of guy he was.
After the army, he attended University at Southern Illinois and was appointed "Dorm Mother" in the deaf dorm. Working toward his bachelors, he had decided to move his major to Law, with the intention of becoming an advocate for the deaf. I know he would have been successful. When we picked up his stuff in South Carolina, among his effects was a Constituional law book, his reading for the weekend. Yes, we returned it to the school library.
'Nother story from his High School days: Chrismas of about 96 or so, he went to do some "shopping". Didn't hear from him for hours, had no clue??? Finally, about 10, he called. He was in the UP visiting a young lady he had met at Revolutionary reenactment. We called her "wolf girl" because he dad raised mixed breed wolf dogs. BTW, he was driving one of these, Honda Z600 Coupe, 2 cylinder, air cooled:
Yes he was grounded for a week when he got home. No, he didn't understand why.
I could go on for hours, and have done. Ask me anything, you'll be sorry.
Happy his brother Adam has turned into a fine guy as well, husband and father and dedicated local cop in Illinois. We remember Derek every birthday and every Memorial Day.
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