Obituaries

-- From News Services and Staff Reports

Helen Frances Proctor PollardCurriculum Specialist

Helen Frances Proctor Pollard, 88, a reading and curriculum specialist who retired from the University of Maryland Baltimore County campus, died of cancer Aug. 2 at her home in Washington. She had a second home in Sag Harbor, Long Island, N.Y.

At UMBC, Mrs. Pollard taught language arts and reading to student teachers for seven years until retiring in 1980. She previously worked at the National Reading Center in Washington and in public school systems in Baltimore, Washington, St. Louis and Milwaukee.

In the early 1960s, she headed language arts instruction at the Zorzor Rural Teacher Training Institute in Zorzor, Liberia, for a program sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development.

A Washington native, Mrs. Pollard graduated first in her class from Cardozo High School in 1936 and with honors from Miner Teachers College in 1941. She was president of the college's chapter of Delta Sigma Theta sorority. She received a master's degree in education from Northwestern University in Illinois in 1946 and also did postgraduate work at Washington University in St. Louis and at Catholic University.

After marrying in 1943, Mrs. Pollard lived for 25 years in St. Louis, where she taught reading and was a curriculum specialist in the public schools system for about 20 years. She spent two years in Milwaukee before returning to Washington in 1970. She taught reading at Nalles Elementary School in the District before joining the National Reading Center about 1972.

After retiring from UMBC, Mrs. Pollard continued her love of teaching reading as a volunteer adult literacy tutor. She also volunteered with Common Cause.

Passionate about politics, Mrs. Pollard went to a Democratic National Convention in the 1940s and volunteered for the presidential campaign of John F. Kennedy.

She enjoyed gardening and reading and was an ardent bridge player and champion Scrabble player. She belonged to Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church in Washington.

Survivors include her husband of 63 years, William B. Pollard of Washington; four children, Veronica Pollard and William B. Pollard III, both of New York, Gayle Pollard-Terry of Los Angeles and Gaye Pollard of Washington; a sister, Veronica P. Word of Washington; and a grandson.