Mr Crooke (64) retires at the end of this month as vicar of St Martin's in Northeast Valley, and St Thomas' in Pine Hill, after 17 years.
He will retain his part-time position as vicar at Leslie Groves rest-home and hospital.
Mr Crooke worked as a librarian in Dunedin for 18 years before deciding to train as a vicar. On rounds distributing books to the bed-bound in hospital, he acknowledged and decided to follow his real calling.
After attending St John's College in Auckland for three years, Mr Crooke was appointed as a curate in Invercargill, where he stayed for two years before returning to Dunedin to be vicar at St Martin's.
A strong focus on ecumenical matters was reflected by Mr Crooke's position as convener of Dunedin's ministers' group, a position from which he would also step down. As well as reaching out to other churches, he had overseen a growing outreach programme in the community, which was crucial to the church not turning "inward".
The concern for the bed-bound who sparked his interest in becoming a vicar continued throughout Mr Crooke's ministry, which had a strong emphasis on home and hospital visits.
The most touching thing about being a minister was the proximity to people's emotions at the most significant times of their lives.
"The privilege of being allowed close to people in the good and bad times."
Many of his parishioners were elderly, a group he would continue to enjoy helping in his role at Leslie Groves.
A generation shaped by world wars and the Great Depression, the elderly were tough but in many ways more open to others because of their own and their parents' experiences, he said.
"The elderly are surprisingly tolerant, more tolerant than the middle-aged," he said.
Dunedin was interesting theologically because of the wide diversity in Anglican churches, which ranged from evangelical (St Matthew's) to highly traditional, or high church (All Saints'), Mr Crooke said.
Mr Crooke's successor was yet to be officially appointed.
