Trying to add a payment method? You can do this on the Derry Lawrence Malsch, of Eugene, Oregon, died on November 12, 2025, at the age of 82, surrounded by his family.
Derry was born on May 10, 1943, in Grand Haven, Michigan, to Ellen Lise Jensen and Frederick Christian Petersen. His father died when Derry was three, and Ellen moved with Derry and his sister, Rondi, to Chicago, where they lived for a time with their grandmother. Ellen later married John Isaac Malsch, who adopted Derry, and in 1948 the family moved to a farm near Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Derry and Rondi attended one-room country schools and, with few other children nearby and not much in the way of toys, largely made up their own fun together. The family later moved to Beloit, Wisconsin, where Derry spent the remainder of his childhood with Rondi and their younger brother, Tom.
Derry graduated from Beloit Memorial High School in 1961 and went on to attend the University of Chicago, earning his bachelor’s degree in 1965 and his master’s degree in 1967. He continued his studies in linguistics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he earned his Ph.D. in 1971.
That same year, Derry drove west from Madison to Eugene, Oregon, with his young family to begin his career at the University of Oregon, where he would teach linguistics for the next three decades. He was one of the faculty members who established and shaped the university’s Linguistics Department, with his work in phonology helping to build the intellectual foundation of the new program. Derry was a gifted teacher, and his courses drew enthusiastic students to the study of language.
In the summer of 1977, Derry brought his family to Vancouver, British Columbia, where he was a visiting professor at the University of British Columbia. From there, the family traveled to Reykjavik, Iceland, where Derry was a Fulbright lecturer in linguistics at the University of Iceland. They lived together in a small apartment, exploring a landscape of volcanoes, waterfalls, geysers, and boiling mud pools and experiencing the long darkness of an Icelandic winter.
During these years, Derry was raising his children, Aaron and Anna, with their mother, Margaret Malsch. On the heels of the family’s early adventures in Vancouver and Iceland, they spent much of their time exploring the Pacific Northwest, camping and backpacking and making frequent trips to the Oregon Coast. The outdoors became an enduring part of Derry’s life, and over time the Coast Range became his favorite landscape close to home.
In the 1990s, Derry’s partner was Morgan Smith. They traveled together to Italy and France and spent time in Mexico, where Derry learned to windsurf. Their dog, Griffin, was an important part of the life they shared.
Derry retired from the University of Oregon in 2001. In retirement, he served as a court-appointed special advocate for children in foster care and volunteered with a program offering free tax preparation assistance to seniors. He traveled in Nepal and Thailand and spent time in the Mississippi Delta, where his partner, Kate Hulpke, was serving with Teach For America. They married in 2003 and made their home in Seattle for a time, taking several trips to Africa before returning to Eugene.
Travel was a large part of the life Derry and Kate built together. In 2007, they set off on a journey around the world that lasted nearly nine months. Closer to home, they explored the country in their camper van, “Big Blue,” especially enjoying road trips through the Southwest. In later years, they traveled to a remote island in Indonesia’s Raja Ampat archipelago to snorkel. For Derry, imagining and planning where to go next was part of the pleasure.
When something captured Derry’s passion, he rarely admired it from a distance. His love of art took him to museums around the world, and sometimes across an ocean to see a particular work in person. Just weeks before his death, at 82, he traveled alone to Malta to see one more Caravaggio—one of his favorite artists. Upon his return, he was happily planning his next adventure—a trip to Mexico City with his daughter Anna.
For all the places Derry traveled, and all that interested him, much of what he loved was rooted in ordinary daily life, close to home: reading over a cup of coffee, tending the blueberries and peppers in his garden, and spending time with his dogs, including Silas and, later, Cassie. Music was a constant pleasure, whether he was seeking out live performances or, later in life, learning to play the piano and banjolele. Above all, Derry held the people he loved close, and those relationships were at the heart of his life.
To his grandchildren, Derry was Papa. He and his oldest grandson, Felix, were two peas in a pod, sharing a curiosity about the world and an ability to talk together about almost anything. The family camping tradition Derry began when Aaron and Anna were young continued into the next generation. On those trips, Papa and Felix were often the first ones awake, sitting by the morning fire and talking for hours before anyone else stirred.
Derry is survived by his wife, Kate Hulpke; his children, Aaron Malsch and Anna Malsch Tamarkin; his son-in-law, Adam Tamarkin; his grandchildren, Felix Anuskiewicz, Mateo Malsch, and Margo Malsch; his sister, Rondi Cox; his dog, Cassie; and his granddog, Cannoli.
In his final days, Derry looked at his family, his face gleaming. “I feel really happy. I’m just happy.”
A celebration of Derry’s life will be held on Saturday, November 7, 2026, at 1 p.m. at the Campbell Community Center in Eugene, Oregon.
