The Rev. Gerard B. Pollock

LAKEVILLE — The Rev. Gerard B. Pollock of Mannsville, N.Y., formerly of Lakeville, died Jan. 16, 2013, at University Hospital in Syracuse, N.Y. “Gerry,” as he was called by everyone, was the only child of Beatrice (Windram) and Michael Pollock. He was born in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, N.Y., on Sept, 12, 1932. His high school days were spent at Brooklyn’s Tilden High School and The Stony Brook School on Long Island. He was graduated from Houghton College, Houghton, N.Y., in 1955, and was graduated in the last class of the Alfred University Theological Seminary. He also studied at Biblical Seminary (now known as New York Theological), Hartford Theological Seminary and Boston University. He was ordained an elder in the Methodist Church in 1964. On Sept. 11, 1954, Gerry married his college sweetheart, Emma R. Pollock. They shared the same last name, and met seated alphabetically at chapel. She is a pianist, organist and member of a large family of many generations of Methodist clergy. Emma and Gerry worked together in ministry. As a seminary student, he began his life’s work as the youth pastor; the Methodist Church in Bay Ridge, Hillsdale and North Hillsdale Methodist churches in New York were his first appointments. While finishing seminary in western New York, he served Arkport, Bishopville and South Dansville Methodist churches. Then, returning to his own conference after seminary, he was appointed to the Lakeville Methodist Church in 1963, and remained there for 21 years — a remarkable length of time for a United Methodist clergyman. After serving the Pawling and Poughquag United Methodist churches for 10 years, he retired in 1994 to Mannsville. In retirement, he was asked to serve three local churches, as interim pastor, when their ministers suddenly passed away. He often conducted communion services for small, area congregations served by lay pastors. A past president of the Commission on Archives and History for the New York Conference of the UMC, he later served, for a decade, as secretary of Archives and History for the northeast jurisdiction of the UMC that includes 13 conferences on the East Coast.During his years in Lakeville, he also served the community through membership in local organizations. He was a Mason, named a Paul Harris Fellow by the Salisbury Rotary Club, and served as an active member, and chaplain, of the Lakeville Hose Company. He was also the chaplain for the Indian Mountain School, during the tenure of headmaster William Doolittle, leading weekly worship and teaching three sections of a once required religion class. Gerry also accepted the responsibility of serving on many local boards of directors including: Sharon Hospital, the Housatonic Mental Health Center and the McCall Foundation. The Housatonic Day Care Center began in the Lakeville United Methodist Church, in 1969, and remained there rent free for 10 years, with his strong support. He conducted many chapel services at Noble Horizons and Geer. In Pawling he continued his work with the Rotary Club. As president of the ecumenical Resource Center responsible for the food pantry and home hospital supplies, he earned a special accommodation for his devotion to this mission. He had the honor of officiating at weddings with the Rev. Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, who first began publishing Guideposts in The Pawling Methodist Church, eventually building his Foundation for Christian Living in Pawling. For 10 years, the ecumenical vacation church school program, held at the Trinity Pawling School, was a labor of love that Gerry organized and supervised. Gerry is survived by his wife, Emma, of Mannsville; his three daughters and their spouses, Nancy (Pollock) Williams, and her husband, Dennis Williams, of Millerton, Dr. Susan (Pollock) May, and her husband, Dr. Christopher May, Heidi (Pollock) Versland, and her husband, Dr. Mark Versland, all of Avon, Conn.; and his son, Christopher, and his wife, Christine (Lamas) Pollock, of Houghton; and by eight grandsons. A memorial and celebration of life service will be held at the Lakeville UMC on Saturday, April 6, at 3 p.m. Contributions in Gerry’s memory can be made to the Lakeville United Methodist Church.