<P> In January 2014, Dempsey signed a two - year contract to remain on Grey's Anatomy (then in its tenth season) that would ensure his presence for potential 11th and 12th seasons . However, in April 2015, Dempsey's character was killed off while his contract was not over yet . Dempsey explained: "it just sort of evolved . It's just kind of happened . It really was something that was kind of surprising that unfolded, and it just naturally came to be . Which was pretty good . I like the way it has all played out ." In August 2015, Rhimes commented: </P> <Table> <Tr> <Td> "</Td> <Td> The decision to have the character die the way that he did was not a difficult one in the sense of what were the options? Either Derek was going to walk out on Meredith, and leave her high and dry, and what was that going to mean? That was going to suggest that the love was not true, the thing we had said for 11 years was a lie and McDreamy wasn't McDreamy . For me, that was untenable . Meredith and Derek's love had to remain Meredith and Derek's love . As painful as it was for me as a storyteller, because I had never really thought that was going to happen, it preserved what felt true to me, was that Derek was going to have to die in order for that love to remain honest . Because I really couldn't have the idea that he just turned out to be a bad guy who walked out on his wife and kids be a true story . To me, it felt like that was the only way to make Meredith and Derek's magic remain true and forever frozen in time . </Td> <Td>" </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> "</Td> <Td> The decision to have the character die the way that he did was not a difficult one in the sense of what were the options? Either Derek was going to walk out on Meredith, and leave her high and dry, and what was that going to mean? That was going to suggest that the love was not true, the thing we had said for 11 years was a lie and McDreamy wasn't McDreamy . For me, that was untenable . Meredith and Derek's love had to remain Meredith and Derek's love . As painful as it was for me as a storyteller, because I had never really thought that was going to happen, it preserved what felt true to me, was that Derek was going to have to die in order for that love to remain honest . Because I really couldn't have the idea that he just turned out to be a bad guy who walked out on his wife and kids be a true story . To me, it felt like that was the only way to make Meredith and Derek's magic remain true and forever frozen in time . </Td> <Td>" </Td> </Tr> <P> The character was later written to be a graduate of Bowdoin College, a liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine, after an alumnus led a petition signed by over 450 students to "adopt" the character as an alumnus . Dempsey is from Lewiston, about 18 miles (29 km) away from Brunswick, and was awarded an honorary doctorate by Bowdoin in 2013 . </P>

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