Birth date: Sep 25, 1931 Death date: Jun 8, 2026
Maryann Pollard passed away on Monday, June 8, 2026, at the age of 94, after a lengthy battle with Alzheimer’s disease. Maryann was born in Stewartville, Minnesota, to Carl and Genevieve Roeder. After graduating from high school, Read Obituary
So many memories of our Thanksgivings together at Nanas then Maryanns house! The Brenham Pollards were always late for Thanksgiving dinner. With extra effort to keep the food warm, our greeting from Maryann when we finally walked in was "well its about time"! Nana and her could feed an army and it was always delicious.
I had the honor and privilege of working with Maryann Pollard for over 25 years. In 1974, I was hired at the newly created University of Houston-Clear Lake to develop and supervise bachelor’s and master’s level degree programs in the high technologies to match the needs of NASA/JSC and our area high tech industries of aerospace contractors, oil and gas companies, biomedical organizations, etc. Most of our undergraduate students were to come from their first two years of higher education at area community colleges. This was an era before desktop and personal computer systems were available along with the automated office tools they typically support today. My first task at UHCL was to write a job description for a key team member. The title was something like “Secretary and Administrative Assistant”, but the role was really “work with me as a partner to do whatever it takes to develop excellent academic programs to meet these needs”. Maryann was one of the first applicants and I made her an offer almost immediately after her interview which she accepted. Hiring her to be a key member of our team was one of my best decisions. Together we managed to describe the courses that would comprise each of our degree programs, propose the courses to the appropriate oversight boards and gain their approval, and then write the specifications and supervise the acquisions for the laboratory equipment needed to initiate the first courses. We then had to develop the job descriptions for each of the faculty to be hired for the new programs, advertise and recruit candidates, select and hire the new faculty members. We also had to introduce ourselves and our new programs to: the faculty and administration in the area community colleges who would send us their best students; and to the appropriate personnel at NASA and the area industries who would later hire our graduates and sponsor most of our faculty and student research. The list of other challenges and opportunities we had to respond to is much too long to enumerate here, but the bottom line is that we succeeded in achieving our goals and this would never have happened without Maryann’s invaluable support. Maryann and I worked on the computer science and engineering part of today’s degree programs in the College of Science and Engineering at UHCL. These programs have now benefited and graduated thousands of students, been responsible for important research projects that were funded nationally and internationally, helped develop similar degree programs internationally, and received many notable honors and recognitions. I was so fortunate to work with her.
Charles McKay, Dean of the College of Science and Engineering, UHCL (retired), Professor Emeritus
I am deeply saddened to hear of Maryann's passing and send my heartfelt condolences to Greg and Patrick and their families. Maryann took me under her wing when I came to the USA back in the 1990s and helped me find my feet in Houston. For that, I will be forever grateful. I will remember her as a wonderfully warm, caring, and honest person and know she will be sorely missed. Rest in Peace Maryann.
With deepest sympathy,
Colin Atkinson (Freinsheim, Germany)
I am deeply saddened to hear of Maryann's passing and send my heartfelt condolences to Greg and Patrick and their families. Maryann took me under her wing when I came to the USA back in the 1990s and helped me find my feet in Houston. For that, I will be forever grateful. I will remember her as a wonderfully warm, caring, and honest person and know she will be sorely missed. Rest in Peace Maryann.
With deepest sympathy,
Colin Atkinson (Freinsheim, Germany)
