Veteran has long history in Flathead Valley

Julian “Len” Derby is known around The Springs at Whitefish for never failing to salute a flag.

Originally from Missoula, Derby, 87, is one of several veterans being honored this Veterans Day at The Springs.

Derby served as the commanding officer of the Whitefish 699th Transportation Company, U.S. Army Reserve, according to a 1957 Pilot article. After graduating from Montana State University in 1951, he was commissioned a second lieutenant at Fort Lewis, Washington, and later finished his training at Fort Benning, Georgia. Derby was assigned to the 43rd Infantry Division in Germany during the Korean War, where he participated in Operation Equinox, the largest peacetime maneuver held in Europe. He also served as an instructor in his division’s non-commissioned officer’s school in southern Bavaria.

Upon returning home to Montana, Derby joined the Army Reserve in Kalispell, eventually retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel.

As an avid skier, Derby often made trips to Big Mountain, where a chance encounter brought him his wife-to-be Corky.

“That was the first and only time she was on the mountain,” he said with a smile.

For the next several months after their meeting, he would call her to go on double-dates bringing along one of his Missoula buddies to be Corky’s date.

When Derby as transferred to Georgia for advanced military training and he and Corky began writing letters to each other. He was given a one-month leave and he returned to Montana before being deployed overseas. He called Corky to actually ask her out on a date, but because she thought he was offering her another double-date, she turned him down. Eventually she relented and they dated during that month. They communicated faithfully while he was stationed in Germany and once he returned home, he proposed.

The couple celebrated 61 years of marriage together before she passed away in 2014. They had four children, Lynn, Laurie, Dean and Julie.

Derby worked as a printer for the Daily Inter Lake for two decades before helping found Flathead Valley Community College. He was one of the school’s first faculty members and taught journalism and photography and was a chaperon for the womens track team.