Dereck Bradford Williamson Journalist and columnist who started his career at Hunterdon County Democrat Dereck Bradford Williamson, writer and longtime humor columnist for New Jersey weekly newspapers, died March 30, 2016, with his wife by his side. Born Jan. 20, 1929, he was the son of Ruth Thomas Williamson and F. Merton Williamson of Flemington, N.J. He graduated from Flemington High School in 1947 and Catawba College in Salisbury, N.C., in 1951 with an English/journalism degree. During the Korean War, Mr. Williamson served as a communications officer on a Navy amphibious transport ship. His first job after the service was reporter and photographer for the Hunterdon County Democrat. For many years, he wrote columns for that paper, for The New Jersey Farmer, and several other area newspapers. In the 1960s, he was assistant editor of the Hunterdon Review, and then editor of the Phillipsburg Free Press. He directed press information for the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, N.Y., and in later years he was a copy editor at the Journal of Commerce in Phillipsburg, N.J. Mr. Williamson was a frequent contributor to Saturday Review's "Phoenix Nest" humor column, later distributed by the Associated Press. Those columns, along with his experiences with do-it-yourself projects, resulted in his 1972 "Complete Book of Pitfalls - A Victim's Guide to Repairs, Maintenance, and Repairing the Maintenance," published in hardcover and paperback. Sample: "There's no such thing as a weekend project. The only thing you can do on a weekend is go away for it." He credited unproductive teenage projects as inspirations. He once built a scrap lumber storage bin out of scrap lumber. When finished, there was no scrap lumber to store. Mr. Williamson's articles appeared in a wide range of publications, including The New York Times Book Review, Saturday Evening Post, industrial trade magazines, "Strategies for College Writing" textbook and the anthologies "Best of Reminisce" and "Reader's Digest Treasury of American Humor." Television credits are "Be It Ever So Humble, There's No Place in Your Price Range," a 1975 housing documentary for NJ Public TV, and as writer-actor in TV Ontario's "Half a Handy Hour" series. He played banjo in the local "Sons of the Whiskey Rebellion" band, and was an original member of the Hunterdon Sailing Club. Surviving him are his wife of 25 years, Kathleen Reynolds Williamson, and her son, Christopher B. Weymouth and his family of Deep River, Conn.; his sister, Ruth W. Galvin of Clover Hill; his children, Drue T. Williamson of Princeton, N.J.; Timothy A. Williamson of Long Valley, N.J., and Susan W. Crocker of Brewster, N.Y.; six grandchildren and a great-grandson. A memorial service will be held on Saturday, April 9, at 1 p.m. at Holcomb-Fisher Funeral Home in Flemington. Holcombe-Fisher Funeral Home 147 Main Street Flemington, N.J. Interment will be private.