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Memorial
The Michigan Alumnus 27
IN MEMORIAM
James Barkley Pollock
An Appreciation by H. H. Bartlett, Professor of Botany
PROFESSOR JAMES BARKLEY POLLOCK was born in Orangeville, Illinois, November 10, 1863, and died in Ann Arbor, Michigan, June 29, 1934. His father, Thomas Pollock (b. Scioto County, Ohio, May 6, 1815, d. Orange ville, Illinois, June 17, 1884), was an Illinois pioneer. He settled in Buckeye Township, Stephenson County, in 1840 and at first experienced all the hardships of the home steaders, but later became well-to-do. His wife, Elizabeth Van Meter, was a direct descendant of John Van Meter 1st, of Berkeley, Virginia, who, with his brother Isaac, received through Governor Gooch a Crown grant of 40,000 acres of land in Wapatonica Valley (south branch of the Potomac), which had been explored by their father, Jan van Meteren, son of the Dutch immigrant, Kryn Jansen van Meteren of New Jersey and New York. In the Van Meter line of descent were Joseph, grandson of John, who held a commission in Washington's army (on his share of the old Crown grant Fort Van Meter was located) and Morgan, a son of Joseph, who was the founder of Morgantown, Ohio.
Pollock attended the Illinois State Normal University in 1891, where he was a fellow student and friend of the late Dean John R. Effinger. He then entered the University of Wisconsin, and graduated as B.S. in 1893. After a year of teaching in the high school at Austin, Illinois, he became Assistant in Botany at Michigan in 1895, but re turned to the University of Wisconsin and took the degree M.S. in 1896. Again at the University of Michigan in 1897, he took the Sc.D. and then went abroad for a year of study under Professor Wilhelm Pfeffer, the famous plant physiologist, at the University of Leipzig.
Pollock’s subsequent career was that of gradual academic advancement at the University of Michigan. He was Instructor from 1898 to 1906, Assistant Professor and Associate Professor 1906-22, Exchange Professor and Re search Professor at the University of Hawaii, 1922-24, Professor 1925-32, and Professor Emeritus 1932-34. He had been up to the time of his retirement the devoted teacher of more college generations than any other member of the botanical staff. He always participated in the teaching of the large freshman course (as it is a tradition in the Michigan department for the older members of the staff to do) and for many years had given a successful intermediate course that attracted many students—his course on microbiology in its application to soils, water supplies, industrial processes, and sanitation. This course satisfied the need of many students for elementary training in the non-medical aspects of bacteriology, but also dealt largely with blue-green algae, molds, and yeasts, varying in content from year to year, according to the needs of the students and the changing interests of the instructor. This course was Pollock's distinctive and highly valued contri bution to the teaching strength of the department.
Pollock's research interests were at first in physiology (his thesis was entitled "The Mechanism of Root Curva ture" but gradually shifted, in accordance with the trend of his teaching, to studies of fungi and algae. It was an investigation of the blue-green algae of a little lake near Ann Arbor where he spent a vacation period with his fam ily in 1918 that laid the foundation for his later research on the significance of algae in the formation of coral reefs. He devoted sev eral weeks to the study of the curious biscuit-shaped calcareous concretions that are so largely instrumental in the deposition of marl at several localities in southern Michigan. These concre tions are formed by blue-green algae and so long as the organisms that produce them are alive they have a coral loid appearance, and are very similar superficially to algal concretions that occur in the very oldest fossiliferous rocks. Furthermore, when the organ isms die, some of the concretions in the shallower water are broken up by wave action and produce a structureless calcareous mud that settles in the deeper water and forms a matrix in which other unbroken concretions become embedded. The whole process is re markably suggestive of the processes by which algae of the red group, far higher in the evolutionary scale than the blue-greens, participate in the building of coral reef and coral sand deposits on tropical and subtropical sea coasts.
It was therefore with his mind prepared to work on coral-reef problems that Dr. Pollock went to the Univer sity of Hawaii as Exchange Professor, for 1922-23. He remained in Honolulu a second year on sabbatical leave, as Research Professor at the University of Hawaii, and in these two years enjoyed the most productive part of his career.
A summary of his work on coral reefs was presented for him at the Third Pan-Pacific Science Congress at Tokyo in 1926 and published in the "Proceedings." This was followed by full publication as Bulletin 55 of the Bishop Museum of Honolulu, in 1928, and by a paper on the origin of Pearl Harbor, the naval base near Honolulu, in 1929. The conclusions regarding the geological history of Pearl Harbor depended upon his interpretation of the algal and coral deposits in excavations made by the Do heny oil interests for the storage of oil. Professor Herbert E. Gregory, Director of the Bishop Museum, after he had critically read and edited "Fringing and Fossil Coral Reefs of Oahu," wrote to Dr. Pollock, "I consider the paper the most enlightening contribution to the geology of Oahu that has been made." Other students of coral-reef prob lems commented on this paper with equal enthusiasm. Regret has been expressed that Pollock's publications on Oahu were not accompanied by specific identifications of the coralline algae, the systematic study of which was cut short by his illness, but it is hoped that this deficiency may yet be made up by his colleague, Dr. W. R. Taylor.
In 1923 the U. S. Navy assigned the minesweepers, Whippoorwill and Tanager, to the duty of conveying a scientific expedition to Johnston and Wake Islands, lying west of the Hawaiian group, the latter well toward Guam. The enterprise had the cooperation of the Bureau of Bio logical Survey, U. S. Department of Agriculture, and the Bishop Museum of Honolulu. Dr. Pollock was appointed botanist, and readers of THE MICHIGAN ALUMNUS will remember his own interesting account of the expedition in the number of November 1, 1923. He found a most meager land flora, which included, however, a problematic species of Pisonia, on Wake Island, the study of which involved him in a systematic revision of all the Oceanic and Asiatic species of Pisonia. This work on Pisonia unfortunately has not resulted in publication because of a series of minor cerebral hemorrhages which began in 1928 and followed so closely as hardly to allow for recuperation to working strength in the intervals between. The strokes especially affected his vision and made work during the last three years very laborious and nerve-racking, but he continued to go to the laboratory until a few days before his death.
Dr. Pollock was not an active participant in the affairs of professional societies, with the single ex ception of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts and Letters. This, as a local enterprise, received his full cooperation and support for many years. He served as Secretary and Editor from 1901 to 1903 and was Presi dent in 1906-7. He was a member of the Unitarian Church; the basis of his adherence to it and of his loyalty to its ideals were admirably expressed by his colleague, Professor John F. Shepard, in an address at his funeral. The services were conducted by the Reverend Henry Tatlock at the Uni tarian Church of Ann Arbor, endeared to his family by long association, for his wife's grandfather, John Allen, was one of those whose interest had made the building of the church possible. Its construction was finished in 1882 during the pastorate of the Reverend J. T. Sunderland, who, in spite of his advanced age, was able to speak at Dr. Pollock's funeral.
Dr. Pollock was married June 24, 1902, to Ida Belle Allen, daughter of John Allen, of Ann Arbor. She died October 24, 1906, and was the mother of Florence Allen Pollock, A.B. 1926, LL.B. 1928 (Michigan) of the Ann Arbor Bar. His second marriage, September 22, 1910, was to Rhoda Selleck, daughter of Henry Selleck, lawyer, of Bay City. She, and two daughters, Cathelia Elizabeth, '32ed, and Nina Ruth, student in the School of Architecture, survive him.