| Graduation Year | Class of 1999 |
| Date of Passing | Aug 13, 2004 |
| About | He liked people and people liked him Chisholm - killed Aug. 13 at the age of 23 by a tumor that crept up his spine paralyzing more and more of his body as it went - liked people and people liked him. Derek Chisholm was a college student at NC State University. --------------------------------------------------- Excerpt: A Matter of Life Jan. 2, 2005 Winston-Salem Journal By Kim Underwood © Copyright 2004 "I can't think of anyone who wouldn't like him off the bat," said his brother, Dennis Jr. "He always went out of the way to find the good in people," his mother said. In his own family, he served as the glue. Derek wanted everyone to get along. His mother said that she, his father - Dennis Sr. - and Dennis Jr. are the sort of people who speak their minds, which can sometimes lead to conflict. One day Derek came home with a set of personality tests that he had spent $45 on. He made everyone take one. After he analyzed the results, he went around to each person and said, "This is the way you deal with such-and-such kind of personality." The only stutter step to his easygoing nature was his Air Jordan sneakers. Best not to step on his shoes. He played varsity football and basketball at Mount Tabor High School and was a point guard in a succession of Amateur Athletic Union basketball teams that placed in state and national competitions. He was an avid Carolina fan but went to N.C. State University because of its computer-engineering program - at games, he used to sit on the State side wearing Carolina gear. He minored in finance so that he could learn the best ways to raise money for the projects that he dreamed of pursuing. "He had a lot of maturity and discipline," Dennis Sr. said. He also had an infectious smile and liked to spend time "appreciating girls," as his mother put it. In November of last year, his back started bothering him. When his foot went numb, he went to the hospital. Doctors found an astrocytoma - a tumor that generally starts in the main part of the brain but sometimes starts, as it did in this case, in the spinal column. Multiple surgeries, six weeks of chemo-therapy and 41 radiation treatments couldn't stop the tumor's march. Both parents took leave from their jobs and his brother moved back from Atlanta to be with him much as possible. Derek never stopped believing he would come out the other side - even after he was paralyzed from the neck down. When they took him to the hospice home, he asked why they were going there. His mother asked a doctor for advice on what to say. The doctor said to tell him that one out of five people go home. She did. "I can support that," he said. Dennis Jr. was 5 years older than his brother, and, when they were young, his little brother looked up to him. Watching the courage and dignity with which his brother faced his illness, Dennis Jr. said, he became the one looking up. "He didn't give up," he said. "To the very end, he fought." |
