STC Old Boy No 3277 - Canterbury Red Devils - New Zealand Ice Black

Over the summer period of 2022/2023 the St Thomas of Canterbury College Community and Old Boy’s association mourned the loss of one of the most popular, well known, genuine, kind, and charismatic people in Dale Harrop. Dale passed away in a tragic accident on December 19 in West Auckland. His cheeky smile and sociable personality was known and respected by so many people – so many people in fact that he ended up having two memorials funerals to celebrate his beautiful life.

Dale Simon Harrop, born in Christchurch 1989 and grew up in the mean streets of Hoon Hay, attending Our Lady of Assumptions Primary School. Along with several other boys, Dale made his way to start at St Thomas’s in 2001 as a freshly face Year 7 student settling into Mrs McCarthy’s junior class, where he quickly drew up a popular following. What followed was an epic seven years at STC culminating with him being the Rice house captain in 2007, some highlights included the French rugby trip (even though he didn’t play rugby), driving the old yellow Corolla to school, performing in the musicals, the Year 13 common room antics and Lafdal’s economics and accounting classes.

Dale was an Ice Hockey superstar and little did we know this, as his humble and quiet nature didn’t give this away. After several years representing Canterbury and New Zealand at age grade levels, he was picked for the Canterbury Mens Red Devils side in 2006 and in 2007 was a regular feature in the mens national team, the New Zealand Ice Blacks. In 2005 he was awarded the Junior Sportsman of the Year at St Thomas’s and in 2007 he was awarded the Overall Sportsman of the Year award for his continuous selection for the New Zealand men’s national team. Throughout those seven years at STC, Dale became known as the most travelled guy going around the school regularly attending trips around the world for his Ice Hockey team. This included most European countries and North America.

After finishing at STC in 2007 and graduating in Year 13, Dale enrolled at Lincoln University to pursue his Landscape and Architecture Degree – which he finished in 2011, graduating the following year. After working at the City Council, Dale went back to university to complete his masters in Landscape & Architecture graduating with that in 2013. He eventually moved to Perth, Australia for work opportunities (and still playing hockey in the Australian League) as an urban designer and then back to New Zealand in Auckland in 2017 where he continued his craft becoming a urban designer in the development of key Auckland landmarks and greenspaces. The pandemic brought him back to Christchurch for a small time before he headed back to Auckland to continue his career. All throughout this time Dale continually played and represented the New Zealand Ice Blacks, Canterbury Red Devils and eventually the West Auckland Admirals attending 10 world championships representing the national team.

Dales second memorial funeral was held in the St Thomas school hall with around 300-400 people attending. This showed the popularity of the man and the people who he reached and the hearts that he touched. As he would have wanted it was themed like a party with his beloved party shirt vibe, Birkenstocks and Crocs all part of the dress code. As I read out in my eulogy to everyone at the memorial, I discussed some of my highlights and stories with Dale, and then finished with this following statement, which absolutely defines the great man;

“All of these are great memories and stories that I am sure we will cherish for ever; they are so important to have – however over the last couple of weeks I have reflected on what I’ve become aware is just as important as making memories. Its relationships and connections. When I think of the qualities of Dale, they are qualities such as caring, compassionate, quirky, energetic, creative, personable, charismatic, understanding and banterers. These qualities allowed him to form many, many positive relationships and connections with numerous amounts of people – he was all about this, this defined him, and this will be his legacy”.

Your Ice Blacks jersey has been framed and will be hung up at your old school forever. 

Aroha ki a koe Dale moe mai ra