Bill J. Derrick

Billy passed away Sunday August 9, 2015 at home in Keller, surrounded by family and loved ones.
Services: Friday August 14, 2015, 10 a.m. Private Graveside at Bluebonnet Hills Memorial Park, Colleyville.
Memorial Services will be held Saturday, August 22, 2015, 10 a.m. at First United Methodist Church of Keller, 1025 Johnson Rd
Keller.
Bill J. Derrick was born on May 31, 1933 in the sleepy farm and railroad town of Braggs, Oklahoma in what was earlier Indian Territory. He was a handsome, freckle faced boy in overalls whose childhood was full of adventures great and small undertaken with his friends and siblings. He was the sixth of eight children that survived infancy born to F.E. and Rena Derrick. A natural athlete, he loved baseball, basketball, playing harmless pranks and learning everything he could about everything he saw. That lifetime love of learning never dimmed and later manifested as an addiction to the History Channel and a scattered library of books on people and places lost to time and history.
Bill was a quiet warrior, battling the Dust Bowl, childhood polio and its debilitating effects, a serious car accident, major heart disease and damage at 45, and later, liver cancer. He served as an army medic in the Korean War, where he spent his time in post-war Germany. He walked the circumference of the earth, more than 25,000 miles, after his heart attack, despite the odds set against him. He was well on his way to repeating the feat.
After graduating from Central High School in Muskogee and Northwestern State University in Tahlequah, Bill became an Irving District Executive with the Boy Scouts of America in 1960. During his long career with the Scouts, he progressed to DE in Houston and Fort Worth, Field Director and then Director of Field Services in Fort Worth, Scout Executive in Lubbock, Personnel Executive with the National Council, and Director of Special Projects in Westlake.
His was a life with humor and the aid of a strong moral compass and it was filled with community service and countless awards and honors. He was an active and longtime Rotarian, serving as President of the international Rotary representing his area in conference in Barcelona Italy in 2002. He was appointed three time to Travs County Grand Jury, his last term as Foreman in 2014. His many recognitions were only the tip of the iceburg; much of his work was done behind the scenes and without credit, as he preferred. He led a full and accomplished life, and left this world when he was ready to do so and on his own terms, despite the deadly aggression of cancer.
In a better place, Bill joins his granddaughter, Allison Anne Anderson; his siblings Wesley, Patti, Betty and Jerry; and his parents.
He is survived by his beloved wife of 58 years, JoAnn; his children Dana Anderson, Roger Derrick and Melinda Guthrie; his daughter in law Karen Derrick; his grandchildren Jacqueline Anderson, Chase Guthrie, Grant Guthrie, Kara Derrick and Lauren Derrick; his siblings Miles Derrick, Charlene Adair and Glenda Tolbert; and a multitude of additional family and friends who love him and will miss him.
Remember him in the faces of children and the joy of learning. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Boy Scouts of America, The American Heart Association or the Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation at cholangiocarcinoma.org