DeLand Every town that keeps its history alive has someone who makes it their life's work. In DeLand, that someone was Bill Dreggors — known to nearly everyone simply as "Mr. DeLand." A local through and through, he attended DeLand High School, served in the U.S. Navy, and worked for Florida Power for forty-two years before retiring into a second career that would define his legacy.
That second career was folk history. Dreggors became president of the West Volusia Historical Society in January 1975 and, when the group briefly disbanded, kept its mission alive almost single-handedly, helping to revive it in the 1980s. He gathered the bulk of the photographs that make up the society's collection and had a hand in restoring the Athens Theatre, the DeLand Memorial Hospital, the DeLand House, and DeBary Hall.
Over the years he created more than 120 programs, weaving authenticated facts and colorful folk stories about early Volusia County and Florida into presentations that made the past feel present. Born June 30, 1926, he died February 3, 2017, at the age of ninety — but the archives he saved and the landmarks he rescued keep "Mr. DeLand" woven into the city he loved.