Dale and I met in 1974 while he was employed as a seasonal Park Ranger at Miquelon Lake Provincial Park, Alberta, Canada. My girlfriend and I, 17 yrs old at the time, were out at the lake for a week of sun and fun. It wasn’t easy but we’d managed to talk our parents into letting us go alone and like normal teenagers, we were determined to make the most of that week.

Apparently we were a little obnoxious and a little unruly and it wasn’t long before Dale was at our campsite reading us the riot act. We were married four years later and we have two sons, Shaun (24) and Jace (20).

On December 12, 2003, after a week and a half of difficulty remembering names, followed by several days with a headache that no amount of Tylenol would ease, a trip to the ER confirmed the unimaginable, a brain tumor, later diagnosed as a GBM IV.

Dale’s children were his everything - and then some. He volunteered his time and services, sometimes to a fault. Whatever the boys were involved in at the time - hockey, baseball, soccer - he rarely missed a practice, rarely missed a game. And then there was his devoted companion - a female border collie we lovingly dubbed “daddy’s girl”. Affectionately referred to by friends and acquaintances, as the best-walked dog in town. It was a common sight to see Dale and his best girl, side by side, heading off for destinations unknown.

Dale was a humble, unassuming man who had a natural ability to motivate others by example. He took great pride in his accomplishments as a Conservation Officer and laughed along with the rest of us when we reminisced about the unwitting boy who had called him a “Conversation Officer”. Everyday during the course of his radiation treatments he would don a Department issued t-shirt with the logo that identified him as an Officer. The tumor had stripped him of so much and I think this daily ritual was his way of keeping the cancer from totally defining him.

A Memorial Bench has been formally dedicated to Dale’s memory and sits overlooking the Badlands of Dinosaur Provincial Park, a World Heritage Site, 200 kilometers east of Calgary, Alberta. A befitting tribute to a man who dedicated 30 years of his life doing his small part to help preserve the integrity of our Parks and Protected Areas.

Dale’s fellow-Officers have established the “Dale Phillips Unsung Hero Award”. It will be presented annually to an Officer in recognition of his or her efforts to be a positive role model in their local community