Dr. Daniel S. and Dorothy J. Harrop Fund

Dr. Daniel and Dorothy J. HarropRhode Islanders born and bred, Daniel and Dorothy Harrop were lifelong philanthropists determined that their grandchildren would learn the value of charitable giving. They established this donor advised fund at the Foundation to “teach the grandchildren to honor the family’s commitment to charity,” according to their eldest son, Dr. Daniel S. Harrop, III. “Mom and dad saw this as a way for the next generation to remain close, by together choosing organizations to assist. They deliberately did not dictate the recipients.”

A Providence College graduate, Daniel Harrop, Jr. received his medical degree from Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. He met Dorothy Harrop in 1951, at the Veterans Medical Center, where he directed the general medical unit and she was ward secretary. Married nearly 50 years when Dr. Harrop died in 2002, they retired to Naples, Florida in 1992. Two daughters, Susan and Deborah, moved to Florida to be near their parents. Mrs. Harrop died in 2008.

Dr. and Mrs. Harrop maintained strong ties to the Ocean State even after moving to Florida, socializing with longtime Rhode Island friends who also retired to Naples.

Dr. Harrop, III, one of five siblings raised by their parents in West Warwick, where the elder Dr. Harrop practiced family medicine for 42 years in the house where he was born, recalls accompanying his father on rounds at Kent County Memorial Hospital Sunday mornings after mass. “Dad, who studied physical diagnosis in Vienna after World War II, was considered a top diagnostician at the hospital. I will never forget his array of stethoscopes!” Mrs. Harrop ran her husband’s practice and was an active volunteer with the Hospital auxiliary.

Education was strongly emphasized in their home. “They were insistent that we not work except during summers – when you were going to school you were expected to concentrate on your studies,” notes Dr. Harrop, who along with his sister Dr. Pamela Harrop followed in their father’s footsteps. Both Dr. Harrop and his brother, Kevin, a local architect, attended Bishop Hendricken High School, where today, a state-of-the-art theater bears the Harrop name.

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