Dave Stockdale (1940 – 2025)
	
Dave Stockdale was born in Rotherham, Yorkshire, England to Frank and Mary Stockdale. Dave’s father worked as a cook during the Second World War and Dave remembered stories from that time.((“David John Stockdale.” //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 10 January 2025.))
	
Dave qualified as a teacher in England and immigrated to Canadian in 1965 to take a teaching job in Alberta. He taught in a two-room school on the Chard First Nation Reserve about 30 miles away from Fort MacMurray. In the summer he attended summer school at the University of Alberta in Edmonton and connected with a group of Australian rugby players. In the fall of 1966, Dave transferred to the school in Grouard and met his future wife Val. In the summer of 1967, they travelled up the Alaska Highway.((“David John Stockdale.” //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 10 January 2025.))
	
Stockdale arrived to live in the Yukon and work as a teacher in 1968. He started playing table tennis that year and went on to win several medals. He taught Phys Ed at F. H. Collins for two years, coached various sports teams, and helped organize the Polar Games. In 1970, he was a coach in table tennis at the Arctic Winter Games. He was on the Board of the Canadian Table Tennis Association and president of Yukon Table Tennis from 1970 to 1980. He won an award in 2001 for his work in table tennis, and organized a championship in 2006 as a test event for the Canada Winter Games held in Whitehorse in 2007.((“David John Stockdale.” //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 10 January 2025.))
	
In 1968, Dave was a teacher/principal at Clinton Creek for a year. In 1971, he organized an elementary school soccer league and began a long career as a coach, manager, promoter, fundraiser, and advocate for the game. After a year in Edmonton, Dave returned in 1972 and taught in the Takhini, Jack Hulland, and Whitehorse Elementary schools before retiring from Elijah Smith Elementary in 1995. He revamped the Polar Games for students in grades 5 and 6 and continued organizing the games until 2020.((“David John Stockdale.” //Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 10 January 2025.)) He served for many years on the soccer association executive as president and in other positions. He organized tournaments, soccer schools, coaching clinics, and referee clinics. He was awarded the Health and Human Resources award for youth services and 1982 Yukon Coach of the Year.((“1987, Dave Stockdale (Soccer, Table Tennis).” Sport Yukon, 2019 website: https://sportyukon.com/programs/hall-of-fame/1987-dave-stockdale-soccer-table-tennis/))

Dave Stockdale was elected to the Whitehorse City Council in 1983 and served for eleven consecutive terms (32 years) in office.((“Three decades of elected service ends for Whitehorse councillor after civic vote.” //The Canadian Press,// 16 October 2015. //National Newswatch,// 2019 website: https://www.nationalnewswatch.com/2015/10/16/mayors-councils-up-for-election-as-municipal-vote-held-across-yukon/#.XRmZmo97mbg)) He was presented with the Association of Yukon Communities’ Hanseatic Award in 2016. The award provides an opportunity for Yukon municipal politicians to recognize the work of their peers.((“Hanseatic Award.” Association of Yukon Communities, 2019 website:   http://www.ayc-yk.ca/programs/awards/hanseatic_award))
	
In 1987, Dave Stockdale was inducted into the Sport Yukon Hall of Fame for his contributions to the community in table tennis and soccer.((“1987, Dave Stockdale (Soccer, Table Tennis).” Sport Yukon, 2019 website: https://sportyukon.com/programs/hall-of-fame/1987-dave-stockdale-soccer-table-tennis/)) In 2007, he received the Commissioner’s Award for Public Service for his passion and dedicated work in numerous Arctic Winter games, the 2007 Canada Winter Games, and the Yukon-wide Polar Games.((“Commissioner to distribute awards at levee." //Whitehorse Star// (Whitehorse), 28 December 2007.)) 

In January 2024, Dave Stockdale was named to the Order or Yukon for his promotion of Yukon sport over a period of five decades, and his role in establishing the Sports Federation, now Sport Yukon, and the Northern Games, now the Arctic Winter Games.((T.S. Gilck, “Three to receive top honours at levees.” //The Whitehorse Star// (Whitehorse), 3 January 2024.))