HAMMELL, Derek (Deke) - November 27, 1947 - May 29, 2024
Born 76 years ago, in Toronto (to his great shame), settled 55 years ago in Jasper (to his great satisfaction), Deke rarely left Jasper other than to drive his VW van through the mountains to visit his much-loved younger brother Rex on Vancouver Island.
Deke went to college in Montreal but dropped out and came west in 1970. He spent years working, and partying, at Marmot Basin, at Maligne Lake and on the Park's work crew, before settling into dispatching for the Park's Emergency Services. Dispatching turned out to be a good fit because, socially challenged, there he could deal with the world, but remotely. He built lasting friendships at every workplace along the way.
If you were a dog or a cat, Deke liked you immediately, the rest of us not so much. He could be fairly described as a Master Reclusive (even with his wonderful local cousins, the Ruddys). He never felt the need for a cell phone, to update his house on Patricia Street, or to hook up the computer printer he had been given a long time ago. In the last ten or so years of his life he maintained an outstanding credit of $3.30 on his only credit card - always paying cash where he could so as not to be in debt to anybody or anyplace.
A special period of Deke’s life began when his Mum moved to Jasper for her sunset years. Coffee together Wednesdays, garage sale-ing Saturday mornings and having a date for Mothers Day dinners pleased them both.
Deke always had a dog and usually a cat, his latest companions being his dog Cleo and cat Zac. His days were defined by walking his dog three times a day and by a rigid routine: up at 7, bed at 11. Otherwise he was content to watch Turner Classic Movies and suffered with the Toronto Blue Jays every season. The dog walks were an opportunity to greet neighbours, both human and canine and people set their clocks by them. Deke felt well looked after by his neighbours who brought meals, cookies, cards and children's drawings. Fred, Heidi and Sawyer de Loe took especially good care of him during his recent illness.
Although quite the loner Deke became, somewhat perversely, popular and widely known as a result of his on-going cartooning where, for many years, his irreverence and disdain for officials and bureaucrats and tourists was looked forward to and enjoyed by the Town at large. His artistic skill shone through and was a satisfying outlet for his witty cynical nature and sarcastic bent.
Deke had a deep love for Jasper, for nature, for the surrounding wildness and for the mountains in which he dwelled. The second child of four, born to Janet (nee Ruddy, deceased) and Gordon Hammell (deceased), brother to Randy, Nora and Rex (deceased), cousin to Gordon, Russell (deceased), Susie and Mo Ruddy, uncle to Andrea, Eric, Jacob and Megan, he will be missed.
