Having only known Derek the last three years of his life, which was tragically cut short in the summer of 2009 while he was riding one of his motorcycles on the streets of Tucson Arizona, I really can not give you a full biography of his time on earth, other than to say I have a recollection of him telling me that he was born and raised in the Bay Area of San Francisco California, and as a young man enlisted in the United States Air Force as an aircraft mechanic/electrician for a few years and was stationed in Germany and few other points on the map. I also recall Derek telling me that while stationed in Delaware, he met his future wife Linda. After his term of service was over, he and Linda would eventually move to Tucson Arizona.
However, the facts of his life of which I have absolute knowledge are the following: In those three much too short years in which I and my wife Judie had the opportunity to get to know both Derek and the lovely Linda, thanks solely to these opportunities afforded by BA.com to us members scattered throughout the world and who share this common interest in Triumph Motorcycles, I found Derek to be a very generous, intelligent, well-read, and articulate man with a wide range of interests and talents. Among those interests were of course motorcycling, and in addition, his talents included photography and the culinary arts, the latter of which he would often use to help me in feeding the attendees to the Southwest Triumph Fest rally that I throw annually. His assistance to me at these rallies will be something of which I will always be most appreciative.
Yep, I suppose you could say Derek was the proverbial “Renaissance Man”. And, as many of you might have come to know, that kind of man is always a pleasure to be around.
Rest in Peace, Derek. We miss you and wish that our time riding the highways of America together were in longer duration than they turned out to be.
Dwight Argo
[If you would like to add a remembrance or photo of Derek please contact us or send a PM to FriarJohn via the Forums.]