Policeman Pat an old school good cop
police officer b July 9, 1957 d October 22, 2019
In many ways Pat Doak, who has died aged 62, was old school – a community cop who made the news for helping to rescue ducklings out of drains and inspiring children to grow up to join the police.
But that is not to say he did not have a hard side. A big, if not particularly tall, man, he spent many years with the specialist armed offenders squad in Hamilton before opting for a gentler role in the Mercury Bay community.
Doak, the fourth of six children, was Hamilton-born, in the days when the Base shopping complex was actually a military base where his father, Hugh, served in the air force in logistics and stores.
The family transferred first to Wellington, and then to New Plymouth, before returning to Hamilton in time for the young Pat to attend St Joseph’s Catholic School and then Fairfield College, which he left after fifth form.
Older brother Tony says exams were anathema to Pat – a dislike that followed him throughout his working days. ‘‘Pat was one of those who went to school to eat his lunch and play sport.’’
Rugby was a serious interest and he played for a range of Hamilton and Waikato regional teams but had to give up active sport as a young man once he started shift work at Waikato Hospital as an orderly. It was while working at the hospital that he met his partner Sandra
O’Shaughnessy and her daughters Kathryn and Marelle.
After five years with the DHB, he moved on to St John Ambulance, as a driver and first-responder, before making the move, as an older recruit, to the police force in 1985.
After police college in Wellington, he returned to Hamilton and spent 20 years in the city, working predominantly in a team policing role. He became known as a safe pair of hands at trouble spots for his calming influence – although, it must be said, his size helped a bit too.
While in Hamilton he served with the AOS for about 13 years, starting in 1988. Former police colleague Greg Nicholls, who spoke at his funeral, described Doak as a gentle giant, who was fearless when the time came.
‘‘We once had to gain forceful access into a house where some perpetrators were hiding. I stormed the door and shouldered it with everything I had, simply to bounce back. Then it was Pat’s turn. Not only did he take out the door, he took out the frame too.’’
Doak was commended for his role in logistics as part of Detective Chief Inspector Rex Miller’s team who solved the murder in the Victoria St public toilets of Margery Hopegood in 1992.
Transferred at some stage to a routine desk job, and with Sandra terminally ill in a rest home, Pat looked for something different, and moved to Whitianga in 2006 as senior constable in a road police role.
He excelled in the small-town community and, before too long, was known to one and all as Policeman Pat – described by many in the condolences column of the Waikato Times as an inspirational figure and a top bloke with an infectious smile who had left a large hole in the Mercury Bay community.
Outside of his police role, Doak revived his interest in rugby and was heavily involved in local teams in a mentoring and managing role.
In what must surely have broadened his already well-known smile, he found himself in the Waikato Times two years ago after a particularly difficult rescue when distressed Whitianga residents called 111 after seeing seven ducklings fall through a storm grate.
Doak called in the emergency services, and the fire brigade was able to cut the grate. ‘‘One of the boys got in the drain and shooed the ducklings down into a whitebait net. They were reunited with their mother and last seen doing a runner into the bushes,’’ he said.
He fell ill at home and was flown at night to Waikato Hospital, where he died knowing his brother Tony, mother Betty, daughter Kathryn and ‘‘boss’’ Rachel were by his side.
Local newspaper the Mercury Bay
Informer said his funeral at the Mercury Bay Game Fishing Club was one of the biggest Whitianga had seen, with people spilling out on to The Esplanade.
He was the partner of Sandra O’Shaughnessy (deceased) and Dad to Kathryn and Marelle; son of Hugh (dec) and Betty; brother to Mike, Tony, Sue, Chris and Kevin; and brother-in-law to Memory, Bub, Ken and Cathy. – By Charles Riddle