Privately owned, Derrick Corporation was founded in 1951 by H. William Derrick Jr., affectionately known as ‘The Chief’ throughout his business career. In 1947, and by now married to his wife Bette, he joined forces with his father-in-law, William L. Wettlaufer, an inventor who held a series of patents to manufacture high frequency therapeutic vibrators and slow speed vibrating screen machines. Together, they developed a high speed vibrator to shake testing sieves. Observation of rapid separation of particles through various sieve sizes and the unusual active behavior of particles when subjected to high frequency vibration spawned the idea for larger commercial designs.

In order to develop and market this idea, Bill Derrick went out on his own, and in 1951 he teamed up with Messinger Bearing Co. to develop the first four bearing high-speed screen vibrator. It was in this same year that Derrick Manufacturing Company was formed as a proprietorship. In 1952, Dick Vale, one of Bill’s cousins joined the company, followed shortly afterwards by his brother Bob Derrick in 1954. In 1955 the company relocated to 590 Duke Road, where for the sum of $25,000, a 3,600 ft² (334 m²) structure was erected to cover needs for both manufacturing and office space. Today, this original space is still a part of Derrick’s 370,000 ft² (34,374 m²) facility.