Joseph P. Derrickson

Longtime Sanford resident Joseph P. Derrickson passed away Friday, February 13, 2009, at Cape Fear Valley Hospital in Fayetteville. An athletic scholarship at UNC Chapel Hill brought Joe to the area in 1933 from his home town of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.

He met Kathryn Elizabeth Bain in 1938 and they were wed in Greensboro in 1941. He served as a clerk in a 1500-bed MASH unit stationed in Wales during WWII where he implemented a color-code triage system for incoming casualties. He and Kitty moved to Sanford in 1950 where he continued his career in auto finance with Auto Credit Company. In 1960, he moved to Central Bank & Trust Co. as the auto loan manager when they built a branch in Sanford. It became the Carolina Bank and a later merger formed BB&T. He retired as a vice president and served on the board of directors.

He was active in the community, served as the treasurer for the building committee for the American Legion Post 382 complex on Legion Road which included an Optimist League baseball park. He was also actively involved with the Veterans of Foreign Wars Stanley McLeod Post 5631 and was instrumental in the campaign that saw local Vietnam veteran Billy Ray Cameron elected national commander and chief of the VFW. Joe was an avid fisherman.

He lost his wife of 60 years to Alzheimer's disease and is survived by one son, Joseph Vance Derrickson and wife, Janet, of Sanford and their son, Joe, of Sanford; one daughter, Janice D. Dawson and husband, Scott, of New Bern; their daughters, Adrienne Dawson of New Bern and Kathyrn Dohogn and husband, Mark, of Fayetteville; and two great-grandsons, Aiden and Garrett Dohogn.

A memorial service will be conducted at 2 p.m. Saturday, February 21, at Bridges-Cameron Funeral Home by Rev. Steve Rosser. Private graveside services will be held at 4 p.m. at Buffalo Cemetery in Sanford.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Joseph and Kathleen Bryan Alzheimers Disease Research Center, First Union Plaza, 2200 N. Main St., Suite A-230, Durham, N.C. 27705 or this charity which is a veteran's based charity helping the needs of veterans and their families; The Fisher House Foundation, Inc., 111 Rockville Pike, Suite 420, Rockville, MD, 20850.

Condolences may be made at www.bridgescameronfuneralhome.com.

Paid Obituary