William Carter Pollard died on March 27, 2020. He was born August 22, 1923 in Farmville, North Carolina, the son of John Oliver Pollard and May Barrett Pollard. He attended Farmville Public Schools and Woodberry Forest School, leaving to join a Navy V-12 training program at the University of North Carolina. Following an injury he was honorably discharged. He enrolled at Davidson College and later received a BA in Comparative Literature from the University of North Carolina and an MA from Florida State University in Library Science. He was Acquisitions Librarian at The University of Georgia, Library Director at Old Dominion University; The College Librarian of The College of William and Mary, and Library Director at Mary Baldwin College. He was chair of the college’s Sesquicentennial Celebration in 1992.
Following his retirement in 1992 Mr. Pollard developed the Archives of Mary Baldwin College collecting from attics and basements around the campus items such as the stained glass window commemorating Miss Mary Julia Baldwin, now displayed in Grafton Library. Volunteering for twenty years he was the college’s first and only archivist. For this he was named an honorary alumnus of the college.
Member of the American Library Association, he was a board member of the Southeastern Library Association; President of the Virginia Library Association, awarded Life Membership; chair, Library Advisory Committee of the Virginia State Council of Higher Education; and member of Virginia State Board for Certification of Librarians.
Long interested in preservation he was a Branch Director of Association for Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, board member of the Staunton/Augusta Art Association and the Historic Staunton Foundation, where he chaired the committee for the publication of Staunton, Virginia: a Pictorial History. As a member of the Williamsburg Presbyterian Church, he served as Elder.
He is survived by his wife of 71 years, Elizabeth Hatch Pollard, three daughters and their husbands, Barrett P. Arnold and Lester Dallas Arnold III, Elizabeth P. Hemeter and Jesse Bryant Hemeter, Anne P. McFerren and Jacob Marshall McFerren, seven grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren.
Burial will be private in Farmville, North Carolina.
Published by The News Leader from Mar. 30 to Apr. 2, 2020.