Paul Derrick's Stargazer

Paul Derrick

...is an amateur astronomer who lived in Waco, Texas, from 1966 to 2014 when he and his wife moved to Denver.  Born in Houston, he grew up in nearby Bayview, on the banks of  Galveston Bay -- a few miles from the site which became NASA's Johnson Space Center.  As a teenager in the 1950s, the dark skies over Galveston Bay, and the inspiration of an 81-year-old stargazer, Margaret Willits, sparked his early interest in astronomy.  His love for the stars was rekindled in the mid-1980s in anticipation of the return of Halley's Comet.

  ...is a retired social worker and college professor who holds a B.A. degree (1962) in sociology, and M.S.W. (1966) and Ph.D. (1987) degrees in social work from the University of Texas at Austin.

  ...and his wife, Jane, are folk musicians. (See Paul's Music History Page.) They are also founders of Waldo's Coffeefhouse, an occasional venue for acoustic folk music (broadly defined) held at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Waco. .

  ...is -- should you be interested in knowing -- a sociopolitical liberal who almost always votes Democrat, and is an agnostic secular humanist and Unitarian Universalist.