Orthomolecular Medicine Hall of Fame

Inducted 2021

Along with his older brother, Derrick attended The Leys School in Cambridge. With the onset of World War II the school was forced to move to Scotland. While exploring the Scottish Highlands, Derrick discovered his love of nature and it was at The Leys that he decided to pursue medicine. Upon graduation he entered St. Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical School in London but due to the Blitz he was relocated to Queen’s College in Cambridge.

Upon graduation in 1948, Derrick took a residency at St. Bartholomew Hospital. He was required to do National Service and joined the Royal Air Force, where he was assigned to a base in Germany. There he met the love of his life, Adele Brew, a nurse.

After Germany, Derrick decided to specialize in Paediatrics at a children’s hospital in Sydenham. He continued to court Adele and they were married in 1951.

During this time Derrick worked in several local practices until he became a partner in Sleaford. Three of their children were born in this time – David in 1953, Michael in 1954, and Susan in 1957. Just after Susan’s birth, they began a new adventure and moved to Canada, near London, Ontario, where Derrick worked for the Royal Canadian Air Force.

Four years later he was invited to do a paediatric residency at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. Daughter Sally was born in 1961, and Derrick later became Cleveland Clinic Foundation Staff Number 52, upon finishing residency in 1962 .

While on staff, Derrick received patients from all over the United States and was thrilled every day by scientific challenges. The social life among the Cleveland Clinic Family was a joy. A good pianist, Derrick played in a hospital band called the Arrhythmias, which performed at several clinic functions.

Derrick became increasingly interested in the biochemistry of medicine and healing and was drawn to Preventive Medicine. In 1982, he joined Dr. James Frackelton in the Preventive Medicine Group and worked there until his retirement at age 89. His patients taught him that nutrition was the most important thing that we can do for ourselves in maintaining our own health and that many conditions can be controlled by a good diet with vitamin and mineral supplementation.

His books include: A Nutritionist’s Guide to the Clinical Use of Vitamin B1 (1987); Why I Left Orthodox Medicine: Healing for the 21st Century (1994); A Nutritional Approach to a Revised Model for Medicine: Is Modern Medicine Helping You? (2013); Thiamine Deficiency Disease, Dysautonomia, and High Calorie Malnutrition (2017).

Derrick presented at the Orthomolecular Medicine Today Conference in 1995 and 2001. His articles are published and cited in the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine.

Looking back on his career choices, Derrick writes, “I have no regrets and have learned repeatedly that the human body heals itself if it has the needed energy. This can only be done by the art and science that surrounds the principles of good nutrition.”