Necrology

Donald Owen Pollock '51

Mar. 12, 1930-Sep. 29, 2019

Donald Owen Pollock ’51, a physician of Cooperstown, N.Y., was born on March 12, 1930, in East Orange, N.J., a son of the former Helen Glasson and James Pollock, Jr., a salesman. He graduated from Morristown (N.J.) High School as class valedictorian.

At Hamilton, Pollock majored in biology and graduated magna cum laude and with Phi Beta Kappa honors. He was a member of the basketball, cross country, and tennis teams, Chapel Board, Campus Fund, Doers & Thinkers, the cheerleader squad, and Psi Upsilon fraternity. Pollock won the Benjamin Walworth Arnold Prize Scholarship and the Dale Senior Scholarship while on the Hill.

After earning his M.D. in 1955 from Harvard Medical School, Pollock made his first stop in Cooperstown to serve his internship and residency at Bassett Hospital. He then served for eight years in the U.S. Army Medical Corps and completed 22 years of service with the Reserve’s 414th Civil Affairs Unit in Utica, N.Y., reaching the rank of colonel.

In 1967, Pollock returned to Bassett Hospital where he served as chief of the ­general services department, associate director for emergency services, medical director of The Meadows nursing home, head of Bassett’s Division of Community Medicine, and the hospital’s expert in ­dermatology. He mentored the first independent nurse practitioner in New York State and also helped establish Bassett’s satellite clinics before his retirement in 1999.

Pollock gave of his time to numerous advisory committees and boards, including service as class gift chair and as an alumni trustee of the College from 1978 to 1982. He also established a major charitable trust. To Pollock, it was a question of giving back. “Hamilton affirmed the good values instilled by my parents. The faculty and students helped create an awareness of where I might fit in and pointed me to a life in a noble profession,” he wrote for his 50th reunion yearbook.

He enjoyed travel and Elderhostel and was a member of the First Presbyterian Church since 1969, serving as an elder and on many committees.

Pollock died on Sept. 29, 2019, surrounded by family and listening to the final Red Sox game of the season. He was 89 and is survived by four children, nine grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. He was predeceased by his wife of 62 years, the former Elinor Hopkins, and their eldest son, the Rev. Stewart Pollock ’76. Also surviving are a brother, Stewart Pollock ’54; niece Wendy Pollock-Gilson ’80; nephew Jeffrey Pollock ’84; and grandniece Laura Gilson ’12.

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