Whom You Will Serve - Derksen, Dick

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Résumé :
The Derksen family finds itself as refugees in the town of Altona, just outside Hamburg, North Germany, after the Catholic army has announced its intention to level the village of Wuestenfelde, where the Mennonites have received refuge for nearly one hundred years. The Thirty-Years War is raging all around them, with its religious undertones leaving room for power-hungry nobles to extend their lands and wealth. Jacob Derksen's life becomes more and more complicated, as he seeks to steer the Mennonite fortunes and the ever-changing aspects of his family.

Biographie:
Dick came of the Mennonites that emigrated from South Russia in 1874. It was his Great-Great Grandfather, Dr. Jacob Derksen, that brought his family over to Manitoba. Dick was born in Lowe Farm, Manitoba, in the West Reserve, but moved when he was seven years old to Mission, BC, where he took the rest of his elementary schooling. In 1952 the family moved northward to Vanderhoof, BC, where Dick grew up fifteen miles out of town on a small bush farm, working in the family sawmill until he left home in 1960 to go to Prairie Bible Institute in Three Hills, AB. After graduating in 1964, he returned to Prairie High School and finished his matriculation. He then moved to Calgary, where he began his B.Ed. studies in school music and social studies in 1966. After graduating in 1970, he taught at Harold Panabaker Junior High School until 1976. Jeraldine (Jerry) Wilkinson joined Dick at Prairie in 1960 and continued in the same class until they graduated together in 1964. She then finished nurses' training in the Galt School in Lethbridge in 1967, after which she began work as an operating-room nurse. Dick and Jerry married August 31, 1968, and in March, 1971, welcomed Derek into their home, joined by Devon in February,1973. In September, 1976, the family moved to Kandern, West Germany, to teach at Black Forest Academy. Their career took them through several moves and the beginnings of Vienna Christian School and the administration of EurECA. Jerry took up bookkeeping and Dick studied at The University of Bath, England, where he completed his MA and took all the courses for his Ed.D., before retiring in 2007 without doing his dissertation. Both their sons have successful careers, and Dick and Jerry have lived in Calgary since that time.