ANDRZEJ DERKOWSKI

1931 - 2024

Andrzej Derkowski died peacefully, on December 23, 2024, aged 93, at Valleyview Care Facility in Toronto, of congestive heart failure. Born in 1931 in Poznan, Poland, he left the country with his father in September 1939, just ahead of the German invasion. After 10 years of wandering through several countries as a war refugee and "displaced person," he arrived in Canada from Africa by himself in 1949 as a 17-year-old. After the obligatory one year on a dairy farm near Collingwood, he worked his way up in Toronto, completing his education while working full-time, up to M.Sc. in urban planning from the University of Toronto. He was a member of the Professional Planners Association of Ontario, and worked in various roles, including Director of Planning for R.V. Anderson Associates and Principal of Derkowski Payne Ltd., Land Development Planners. He was the Chairman of a Committee of the Canadian Polish Congress which funded the Konstanty Reynert Chair of Polish History at the University of Toronto. He received the "Arbor Award" from the University and the Cross of Merit from the President of Poland. He published two books; a collection of verses and essays, and a memoir. He leaves three children by a previous marriage to the late Helen Banel, Adele, Edward and Jan; six grandchildren and one great-granddaughter. His wife, Gillian, passed peacefully two days earlier on December 21, 2024. A burial is planned at 11 a.m. on May 4, 2025, at Trafalgar Lawn Cemetery in Oakville.