His association with Collegiate School extended from his time as a pupil - from 1945-49 - until shortly before his death.
His contributions included the editing of a a monumental book, The Register, to mark the 150th year celebrations of Collegiate School. The book included names and numbers of old boys and old girls, now totalling more than 13,000, from the school's inception in 1854. Working on a voluntary basis, Mr Irvine (No4585) established a database and researched for many hours to contribute all facets of information about the school's history. Subsequently, he developed the database to provide news of old boys and old girls in the Collegiate School Bulletin magazine, a task he maintained until recently.
As a student Mr Irvine was a prefect and a First XV player.
Mr Irvine decided on a teaching career after completing a degree in architecture at Auckland.
He was on the Collegiate School teaching staff from 1958 to 1977, from 1981 to 1990, and in 1996. Apart from teaching mathematics, he was a pioneer teacher of computing, a role he later maintained with senior citizens.
Mr Irvine was also a school master at Huntley School (1956-57), headmaster at St George's School (1978-79), and taught in the United Kingdom at St Edward's School, Oxford (1990-93) and Eton College (1993). He was awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship to Cambridge University in 1975.
As a rugby player, a front row prop, he appeared 27 times for Wanganui, starting his club career with Athletic in Marton after joining the staff at Huntley School. He subsequently played for Wanganui High School Old Boys. He was involved in three Ranfurly Shield challenges, against Wellington in 1957 (5-34), Taranaki in 1958 (9-22) and Taranaki again in 1959 (11-17). He was in sides which were highly competitive against the touring Australians in 1958 (9-11) and the Lions in 1959 (6-9). He also played for Wanganui Metropolitan and Rangitikei sub-union teams.
Mr Irvine was a hard minded and effective rugby coach of the Collegiate First XV for several years and became an assistant coach of Wanganui representative teams with Bernie Kelly. His stint with Wanganui sides included two wins against Victoria in Melbourne in 2001.
It was no surprise to see him competing at the New Zealand Masters' Games, given his summer sporting interest, rowing. Mr Irvine won national titles in his age group as an indoor rower.
As a student, Mr Irvine was a New Zealand Universities' Rowing Blue and he went on to make national impact in rowing as a coach and selector.
When Mr Irvine first arrived at Collegiate School as a teacher consideration was being given to shutting down the rowing programme. He was not only successful in retaining the sport but also the purchase of a new eight, and school crews under his coaching achieved notable results over a lengthy period.
He had back-to-back Maadi Cup wins, in 1963-64, and the 50th anniversary of the eight's triumph was celebrated in November. Surviving oarsmen made a run on the Whanganui, with Mr Irvine watching from the riverbank.
His record with school crews led to him becoming a New Zealand rowing selector and national coach. He coached a crew at the 1978 world championships at Lake Karapiro and was elected a life-member of both the NZ Rowing and NZ Secondary Schools' Rowing Associations.
Mr Irvine is survived by wife, Janet, son Sam and daughters Kate and Mandy.
