Derek's Dying

This video is a tribute posted by someone about Derek DeCambra, long-time Artistic Director for Christian Arts, Inc., an organization that regularly produced the opera “I Am the Way,” written by Jermone Hines.  It’s been my privilege to serve on the board of Christian Arts for the past six or seven years.  I didn’t know Derek as well as many people, but I feel blessed that I could have called him my friend.  Derek died on July 15, 2009 at age 81 after a painful battle with cancer.

I attended Derek’s memorial service yesterday.  The beautiful songs and warm remembrances offered by his many friends inside and outside of opera circles were deeply moving.  The common theme was overwhelming:  this was a man who loved people, loved Jesus Christ, and desired above all else to connect people with Jesus.  No tribute could be greater.

Now, it’s true that Derek was a quirky guy!  He had a deep British accent though he was raised in the U.S., he never married, and he always carried himself with a Shakespearean flair that pumped drama into everyday life — even when drama maybe wasn’t the best response.  This often exasperated me when trying to conduct the business of Christian Arts, I admit!  Though he was gifted and educated as a musician and artist, his deeply held theological and political views were perhaps, for some of us, a little less well-rounded than we might prefer. But with Derek, none of this was ever a matter of contentiousness. It was simply who he was, part of the love and passion that spilled out of his being. The roster of speakers at his memorial reflected this: good friends who included a former Princeton Seminary professor who managed arts ministries for the United Methodist Church, a woman Lutheran minister, a director of Word of Life’s evangelistic musicals, and the pastor of a small local fundamentalist-baptist church — people whom I suspect wouldn’t see eye-to-eye on many things other than their love for Derek and for Jesus.

I’ll never forget the first time I met Derek.  I was a nervous young lawyer, assigned by a senior partner in my firm to help Christian Arts with a contract.  Derek, Jerome Hines, and I met in a pizza parlor in Montclair, mostly so they could size me up.  By our second slice of pizza, Derek and Jerome Hines were standing to sing opera arias for the other diners, to everyone’s delight.  If you don’t know opera, this was remarkable — in his day, Jerome Hines was a superstar.  It would be like jamming with Elvis in Starbucks.  Derek was the hinge that made such a joyful moment possible.

I wish I had been more patient with and attentive to Derek as his illness progressed.  I hate to admit that I often lost touch with what was happening, and didn’t call as often as I should have.  Even as he became ill, he always remembered to pray for and ask about my son Garrett.  I only hope that when it’s my turn to be called home, whoever remembers me will think of me also as a person who above all loved people, loved Jesus, and desired to connect the two.