Dereck Bradford Williamson

Dereck Bradford Williamson, writer and longtime humor columnist for New Jersey weekly newspapers, died on Wednesday, March 30, 2016. He was 87 years old. Born January 20, 1929, he was the son of the late Ruth Thomas and P. Merton Williamson. He graduated from Flemington High School in 1947 and Catawba College in 1951 with an English/Journalism degree. During the Korean War he served as a Communications Officer on a Navy amphibious transport ship. Williamson’s first job after the service was reporter and photographer for the Hunterdon County Democrat. For many years he wrote columns for that paper, for The New Jersey Farmer, and several other area newspapers. In the 1960’s he served as assistant editor of the Hunterdon Review, and then editor of the Phillipsburg Free Press. He directed press information for the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. In later years, he worked as a copy editor at the Journal of Commerce in Phillipsburg. Williamson was a frequent contributor to Saturday Review’s “Phoenix Nest” humor column, later distributed by the Associated Press. Those columns, along with his experiences with do-it-yourself projects, resulted in his 1972 “Complete Book of Pitfalls-A Victim’s Guide to Repairs, Maintenance, and Repairing the Maintenance” published in hardcover and paperback. Sample: “There’s no such thing as a weekend project. The only thing you can do on a weekend is go away for it.” (The author credited unproductive teenage products as inspirations. He once built a scrap lumber storage bin out of scrap lumber. When finished, there was no scrap lumber for the bin.) Williamson’s articles appeared in a wide range of publications including the New York Times Book Review, Saturday Evening Post, “Strategies for College Writing”, “Best of Reminisce”, and Reader’s Digest “Treasury of American Humor.” Television credits are “Be It Ever So Humble, There’s No Place In Your Price Range,” a 1975 documentary; and as a writer/actor in the “Half a Handy Hour” series. He played banjo in the local “Sons of the Whiskey Rebellion” band, and was an original member of the Hunterdon Sailing Club. He is survived by his wife of twenty-five years , Kathleen Reynolds Williamson; a step-son, Chris Weymouth and his family of Deep River, CT.; a sister, Ruth Galvin, of Clover Hill, NJ; his children from his marriage to Mary S. Duncan: Drue Williamson of Princeton, NJ, Timothy Williamson of Long Valley, NJ, Susan Crocker of Brewster, NY; six grandchildren; and one great-grandson. A Memorial Service will be held Saturday, April 9, 2016, at 1:00 PM in the Holcombe-Fisher Funeral Home, 147 Main Street, Flemington, NJ. Interment will be private. Memorial contributions may be made to the Hunterdon County Historical Society, 114 Main Street, Flemington, NJ 08822. Please visit www.holcombefisher.com for further information, or to send condolences.