Derek Dodd

Posted: February 10th, 2022

DEREK DODD, former chief-sub on the Sunday Mirror, London, and later, the paper’s northern editor in Manchester, died on February 5 [2022]. He was 92. Derek’s funeral will take place at 3pm on Thursday, February 17, at Overdale Crematorium, Overdale Drive, Bolton BL1 5BU.

DEREK George Dodd was born in Liverpool on November 4, 1929. On leaving the Holt Grammar School, aged 16, he began his career in newspapers on provincial titles, initially the Bootle Times.

After stints on the Cambridge Times, Hull Daily Mail, Southport Visitor and Daily Express, he joined the Sunday Mirror in London in the early ’60s, eventually becoming chief sub.

In 1974 Derek succeeded Derek Jameson as northern editor of the Sunday Mirror in Manchester, where he remained until retirement in 1986.

For a number of years after his retirement, Derek lectured in journalism at Lancaster University.

He is survived by son Stephen and daughter Hilary, four grandchildren, Robert, Jennifer, Luke and Joseph, and four great-grandchildren. His wife Joan, the mother of his children, died of cancer in 1978. His later long-term partner, Dorothy, died in 2018.