Derek Van Quackenbush ’43
Derek Van Quackenbush ’43 died January 25, 2015, at the Palomar Medical Center in Escondido, California. Van grew up in Le Sueur, Minnesota, and attended Culver Military Academy. At Dartmouth he majored in Spanish, was a member of the band and orchestra, the Green Collegians, the Ambus Americas and El Centro Espanol. During the war Van spent 36 months in the 15th Air Force, 16 of them in Italy, in radar maintenance. On his return to the States he earned a B.A. in journalism at the University of Missouri. Van then became an editor of the Warsaw Bulletin in Warsaw, Minnesota and, in 1950, its owner. He married Marjorie Bott in the early 1950s, sold the Bulletin and moved to Del Mar, California, where he founded the Del Mar Surfcomber and acquired the Poway News-Chieftain in Poway, California. In 1968 Van moved to Illinois and founded the Hamilton Pilot and acquired the Hancock County Journal in Carthage, combining them, in 1970, into the Hancock County Journal Pilot. He also owned the Bowen Chronicle. In 1974 he sold his newspapers and moved back to California, where he founded the Valley Center Roadrunner, which he and Marge published until their retirement in 1990. To quote Van, “For personal satisfaction the vocation [journalism] must rank near the top.” Active in the Rotary Club and the local chamber of commerce, retirement gave Van more time for golf, bridge, local events and playing the saxophone. Van is survived by Marjorie, daughters Susan and Ann, four grandchildren and one great-grandson.
