Derek Drummon. Portrait by Harry Mayerovitch
Derek Drummond, OAQ, FRAIC, William C. Macdonald Emeritus Professor of Architecture at McGill University, died on November 17, 2023, three days before his 85th birthday.
A Montrealer by birth, Derek studied architecture at McGill. He graduated in 1962 and soon co-founded the architectural firm Donaldson Drummond Sankey, which became well-known for the design of the Town of Mount Royal Library and a series of

innovative elementary schools.

He returned to McGill as a lecturer in 1964. For the next 40 years, without a single sabbatical or leave of absence, he taught in the School of Architecture while serving the university, the profession, and the community in a dazzling variety of roles. Derek was appointed Director of the School in 1975, quickly established his credentials in the international community of North American Schools of Architecture, and completed two terms, stepping down in 1985. He was reappointed to a third term in 1990, and had started his fourth when Principal Bernard Shapiro invited him to join the University?s leadership team as Vice-Principal Development and Alumni Relations in 1996.
Derek was a gifted administrator?imaginative, wise, and compassionate?with a legendary sense of humour and a contagious laugh, often punctuated with a double thigh-slap that students and colleagues used as the basis for convincing impressions over the years. His sense of humour was usually characterized as irreverent, especially...