Albert "Mike" Derbyshire Memorial Scholarship Fund

Hello all you fine people. I hope this graduation/late spring time is treating everyone well. This beautiful above average weather has been a great treat for those of us living up here in the Pacific Northwest. I am not the most educated person in the world or the best at writing these types of things. However, I am going to give it my best try. Today is actually a very special day. June 8th 2025, marks the 97th year since the birth of a great man. Without him 5 children, 11 grandchildren, many great grandchildren, and even a few great-great grandchildren (Miquel Marie keeps poppin’ em out and who knows about Gage and Austin out whorin’ around, LOL) would not have been brought into this world. This man is none other than my very own grandfather, Albert “Mike” Ray Derbyshire. As taken from his obituary: “He was born in Kellogg and later served in the Army during the Korean War. After his military discharge, he worked for the Shoshone County Road Department for 24 years, retiring in 1985. Mr. Derbyshire was a member of the Osburn Veterans of Foreign Wars Post No. 1675 and the Good Sam Club.” From my perspective, he worked his butt off doing the best he could to provide for his 5 children and my sometimes hard to please grandmother (God bless her heart). Due to health issues he had to retire early and spent many of those retirement years couped up with my grandma in a motorhome smuggling souvenir blankets and other things from Mexico (don’t let Trump know) Grandpa was also the core and rock of the family. He was our discipline and tough love, our quiet and stoic leader. If you got in trouble, you didn’t want grandpa to know. For me, I didn’t want to disappoint him, especially after he literally punched me in the face after back talking my grandma when I was 14. We grew much closer after that as I grew to respect him more for defending my grandma (I know, not the PC way, but it worked for us). He was also one of the lynch pins for our extremely large extended Derbyshire family. When he left us all behind on April 16, 1996, it had a profound impact on the dynamics of the family and how we interacted with each other. Over the years we slowly drifted apart and began to see less and less of each other. It also screwed up my prom plans since that was the day of his funeral. LOL. More recently both the extended family and the more immediate family, have started to communicate more and try to see more of each other. We held a family reunion in 2024 and hope to have another roughly every 2 to 3 years to keep in touch, instead of waiting for almost 10 years like with did this last time. The immediate family, including his children, grandchildren, etc. will hopefully be able to get together and spend some time to reflect on family and grow closer once again in celebration of his 100th birthday in 2028 (Michael-get your butt back from Germany for this!!) But with all of the thoughts on family and reflection on how my grandfather led his life and worked his ass off for his 5 children, I wanted to find a way to honor him for his 100th birthday, 3 years from now. Which brings me to the whole point of this fund. My goal is simple. I want to establish a lasting scholarship fund in the name of my grandfather for students from Shoshone County, Idaho (remember he worked for the County for most of his adult life). Initially I was going to say Kellogg High School, but I graduated from Wallace. Those of you from the Silver Valley/Shoshone County understand the rivalry. I can’t leave my peeps from Wallace out of the fund and I get to use the excuse that he worked for the County to slip them in. Yay to me for being smart!! Back to the subject. This is a long-term campaign and I will keep coming back to it as long as needed. The initial goal will be set at $15,000. If we reach that goal within the 3 years then we can establish a scholarship in the name of my grandfather. If we can exceed that amount substantially, probably near $25,000, then I will also include my grandmother in the honor (it’s a little early for her 100th birthday as she was born in 1934). If you got to this point, I applaud you. Thank you for reading my novel as I ask for your money. Keep in mind that this is a long-term project. I am hoping to reach the goal by my grandfather’s 100th birthday on June 8th, 2028. So, we have 3 years to get to $15k and hopefully more than $25k to include my grandmother. If we can’t get her in now, we’ll just have to do a separate campaign when its her time, LOL. So, donate now, reach $25k, and same $5k instead of two campaigns at $15k each totaling $30k. Again, I am so smart. Thanks for reading and I hope you’ll consider donating. Have a blessed day!!