Beverly Pollock
- Date Of Birth: June 21, 1936
- Date Of Death: March 23, 2023
- State: Nebraska
Beverly A Pollock, 86, of Ogallala, passed away Thursday, March 23rd, 2023 at the Bellevue Health Center in Bellevue, NE.
She was born June 21, 1936, at Lincoln, the daughter of Glenn A. and Sylvia (Lewis) Buck. In the 1940s, the Bucks bought the Rolling Stone Ranch in Cherry County, although Lincoln continued to be their primary place of residence. She graduated from Lincoln High School in 1954 and received a Bachelor of Arts degree, with distinction, in journalism from the University of Nebraska in 1958.
A fourth generation Nebraskan, she was the Ak-Sar-Ben countess from Lincoln, where her father was president, publisher and chairman of the board of The Nebraska Farmer, Inc.
While at the university, she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, a national scholastic honor society that was founded in 1776 at the College of William and Mary at Williamsburg, Virginia. She also was a member of Mortar Board, an honorary society for women student recognizing leadership, scholarship, service and character. A member of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority, she joined the staff of the Nebraska Cornhusker Yearbook as a freshman, becoming editor-in-chief her senior year.
On Sept. 13, 1958, she married fellow journalism student Jack S. Pollock at Lincoln. Pollock, the son of District Judge F. H. and Gladys Pollock, of Stanton, was editor-in-chief of the Daily Nebraskan student newspaper. The Pollock’s moved to Sidney in late 1958 and were mentored by the late Jack H. Lowe of the Sidney Telegraph.
In 1960, they joined the staff of the Keith County News, working for W. E. “Boola” and Marge Buechler, from whom they purchased the newspaper in 1966.
She wrote the weekly column “The Diary of a Year-Round Beach Bum,” covered meetings of the Ogallala Board of education and wrote other news and editorials.
She won various awards for her journalistic efforts, including, in 2002, the Emma C. McKinney Memorial Award, which was presented at the National Newspaper Association convention in Portland, Oregon, “in recognition of outstanding leadership and service to her community and the profession of journalism.”
In 2011, she was one of six women inducted with the inaugural class of the Nebraska Women Journalists Hall of Fame.
She also won the Nebraska Press Women’s first-place award and National Federation of Press Women’s second-place award for the “Lonesome Dove” special section, which promoted tourism in Keith County. More than 100,000 copies of that publication have been circulated.
The Pollock’s retired and sold the Keith County News to three of their employees in 2000.
She often said she was most energized and gratified by her service on the board of directors of the Nebraska Community Foundation and on the board of the Keith County Foundation Fund.
She joined the Nebraska Community Foundation in the organization’s third year, serving from 1995 through 2004, including service on the board’s executive committee. She was instrumental in revitalizing the Keith County Community Foundation, now KCFF, and guiding it to affiliate with the Nebraska Community Foundation.
Serving on various statewide boards, she was a member of the boards of the Nebraska Humanities Foundation, Nebraska State Historical Society Foundation and the University of Nebraska Foundation. She served for many years on the University of Nebraska President’s Advisory Council and was a member of the 13th District Nebraska Judicial Nominating Commission.
She served on the board of trustees of the Goodall City Library and, for many years, as president of the board of the Ogallala Library Foundation. Other local activities included serving as charter president of the Ogallala Branch of the American Association of University Women and holding state AAUW positions, serving as president of the Women’s Division of the Ogallala/Keith County Chamber of Commerce and as president of Chapter CL, PEO. While her children attended Keith County School District 18, she served several years as secretary of the District 18 Board of Education.
A member of the First Congregational United Church of Christ, of Ogallala, for more than 50 years, she taught Sunday school for about 10 years and served on several church boards and committees. As a volunteer, she produced the monthly church newsletter for 11 years and the Sunday church bulletins for many more years, for both the First Congregational UCC at Ogallala and the United Church of Christ, Congregational, of Brule.
Survivors include a son, Andrew S. Pollock, an attorney, and his wife, Dr. Kris Pollock, a dentist, of Pleasant Dale; a daughter, Allison Ann and her husband, Larry Welch Jr., an attorney and one of six judges of the Nebraska Court of Appeals, of Beaver Lake; grandchildren, Libby, Sam, Katie, and Mac Pollock, and Buck, Ben, and Jack Welch; and a brother, Glenn L. Buck, of Pensacola, Florida.
She was preceded in death by her husband of 50 years, Jack Pollock, in 2009; and a sister, Barbara Buck.