HK Derryberry speaks to ACS Teachers Institute

Published 12:26 pm Tuesday, August 8, 2023

“Lovely, lovely, lovely.”

That is what HK Derryberry says about life. He added, “I like to soar like a Golden Eagle chasing a bus load of Decatur Red Raiders.”

Derryberry spoke Monday morning, Aug. 7, at Athens City Schools Teachers Institute with his friend, Athens native Jim Bradford. They encouraged teachers to never give up on a student.

Derryberry’s story

Born July 9, 1990, in Nashville, Tenn., Derryberry arrived three months premature due to an automobile accident that took his mother’s life. The tiny two-pound baby boy spent the next 96 days fighting for survival in Vanderbilt University medical Center’s neonatal intensive care unit.

Although doctors offered little hope for survival, this miracle boy proved them wrong. Because of the accident and premature birth, he was born blind, with cerebral palsy and with countless other medical problems. Eventually, this proved too much for his father, who survived the automobile crash but was unable to cope with life. When Derryberry turned 5 years old, he left his disabled son in the care of his mother and disappeared for more than 10 years.

Raised by his grandmother, some people might say that Derryberry faced too many mountains to climb. Quite the contrary, for at an early age, he displayed an extraordinary will to overcome his disabilities and at age three, enrolled at the Tennessee School for the Blind becoming one of the youngest students in the school’s history.

Derryberry’s right arm, paralyzed from a stroke suffered soon after birth, didn’t stop him from learning to read and write Braille with just one hand — another first for the 150 year old school.

Derryberry’s life was changed forever in 1999 when he unexpectedly met Jim Bradford, a local businessman in Brentwood, Tenn., who was married with two adult daughters. Derryberry and Jim soon soon became inseparable and eventually the Bradford family welcomed Derryberry into their lives like an adopted son. Jim’s personal mentoring and constant involvement quickly exposed Derryberry to a world he had never experienced.

Since age 10, Derryberry has displayed signs of a remarkable ability to recall dates and other facts surrounding events in his life. In 2012, the mystery of his memory was unlocked by medical researchers at Vanderbilt medical Center’s Memory Clinic. They discovered that Derryberry is one of only five or six people in the world with a medical diagnosis of hyperthymesia, otherwise known as Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory.

Derryberry has the ability to remember every event, including time and place, that has occurred to him since he was 4 years old. Vanderbilt researchers are optimistic that studies on Derryberry’s brain may one day lead to a breakthrough for people suffering memory loss.