Derick Russell Caulder

Mr. Derick Russell Caulder, age 66, of Dumfries, VA and formerly of Chesterfield, SC, went home to be with his Lord and Savior on Saturday, November 29, 2025. A funeral service will be held at Town Creek Baptist Church in Aiken, SC at 11:00 AM on Saturday, December 6, 2025. The family will greet friends from 10:30 am - 11:00 AM Saturday, prior to the service in the sanctuary of the church. Following the service, he will be laid to rest at Sunset Memorial Gardens in Graniteville, SC alongside his beloved wife, Sharon, and granddaughter, Leighton.

The service will be livestreamed on the Miller-Rivers-Caulder Funeral Home Facebook page.

Derick was born on August 15, 1959, in Baltimore, MD to the late Calvin Lewis and Christine Barrentine Caulder. Raised in Dillon, SC, he graduated from Dillon High School in 1977 (though you wouldn’t know it from yearbooks since he somehow managed to always miss class photo days). The youngest of two boys, Derick developed a strong work ethic working in tobacco fields and alongside his father on various farming equipment. He was the light of his mother’s eyes.

Derick worked in the retail industry for more than 40 years, with most of those years spent in various project management roles at Walmart that took him up and down the East Coast. He was proud of the impact he made at Walmart. And while he was quick to tell you that one of his happiest days was retiring from Walmart, he never let a day go by without finding some reason to visit a Walmart store. The clearance aisle shelves will forever be better stocked in his absence.

It was through Derick’s retail career that he met the love of his life, Sharon. They eventually settled in Chesterfield, SC and started a family. Derick was a devoted father to his three children, Nicholas, Courtney, and Christopher, and through his final days would bend the ear of anyone who would listen (willingly or otherwise) to tell them how proud he was of his kids and grandchildren.

Derick cherished his land in Chesterfield, especially its two ponds and endless amount of grass to mow. He suffered from a near-total inability to sit still—if he wasn’t mowing grass, tinkering with anything that had an engine, or clearing shrubbery, or piddling with something else in the yard, then he was getting ready to do so. In fact, he arguably spent more time talking about fishing in his ponds than actually wetting a hook (though he did love to look at the water). He was a man of many talents, not the least of which were his masterful engineering skills: from rigging an electric fan to a riding lawnmower to affixing air fresheners to ceiling fans to blanket rooms in the scent of fresh pines to strapping a push mower to an ATV to create a riding mower, his ingenuity and creativity were always on full display. Patents pending.

After Sharon’s passing in 2021, Derick moved to Virginia with his son, Christopher, and his family. While he came to love his home in Virginia—and despite repeated assurances that Virginia was still in the south—Derick always referred to it as being full of a bunch of yankees. Notwithstanding that view, Derick flourished in Virginia and, shortly after moving, took a part-time job working in the cafeteria at his grandchildren’s elementary school. The students adored him and lovingly called him “Papa D.” Derick retired for the second time after one year in an elementary school (and truly, who could blame him?). Still, he achieved celebrity status, and the cafeteria would erupt with “Papa D” chants and cheers whenever he visited in subsequent years—one of many visible reminders of just how special he was.

Derick had a heart of pure gold, and to know him was to love him. He loved deeply, gave generously, and made everyone feel seen. Up until the very end, he was still asking what he could do for others, telling people: “let me know if you need anything.” He was light-hearted, loved a good joke, and never missed a chance to talk politics or discuss solutions to the world’s problems (if only someone had listened).

He always said that a person was lucky to have one true friend in life. He repeated over the years how blessed he felt to have three true friends he considered brothers: Pat Key, Rick Bush, and Larry Chewning. He also loved his dogs, Tigger and Bo; Elvis Presley; an ice-cold Coca Cola; picking the next winners of American Idol and America’s Got Talent; spending summer evenings by the swimming pool; buying lottery tickets he rarely bothered to check; and mowing the yard (both grass and dirt alike) with his beloved John Deere riding mower.

Above all, Derick loved his children and grandchildren with a devotion that knew no limits. They truly meant the entire world to him. During visits to see his son, Nicholas, daughter, Courtney, and grandchildren in SC, he was quick to gift everyone one (or more) of his latest bargain purchases, brag on Nick’s landscaping progress, and rave about Chris’s grilling skills. He could easily be found asking Hope for Private Property’s ribeye recipe, sitting front-row for living room shows performed by his granddaughters Arya and Bizzy, or letting his granddaughters paint his nails. He especially loved target shooting and weekly sleepovers with his grandson, Liam; taking his granddaughter, Maddie, to the Walmart makeup section for the newest skincare product or to Sweet Frogs for frozen yogurt; and shopping Black Friday sales with his daughter-in-law, Natasha.

Later in life, he developed a love for vacationing with family and was quick to tell anyone who would listen (again, willingly or otherwise) about family Disney cruises, swimming with bull sharks with his sons, and plans for future trips. Derick’s mantra became: take the trip, spend the time, spend the money—you can’t take it with you.

Derick is survived by his son, Christopher (Natasha) Caulder of Dumfries, VA; daughter, Courtney (Chris) Roberts of Aiken, SC; son, Nicholas (Hope Hartley) Caulder of Lexington, SC; grandson, Liam Caulder; and granddaughters Madison Caulder, Arya Roberts, and Landry (“Bizzy”) Roberts.

He was preceded in death by his wife, Sharon Caulder; his parents, Calvin and Christine Caulder; his brother, Mitchell Caulder; and his granddaughter, Leighton Roberts.

Miller-Rivers-Caulder Funeral Home (www.mrcfuneralhome.com) of Chesterfield, SC is serving the Caulder family.