A Concern for Water Safety
As a very young boy, he developed an interest in ships and the sea and this interest never left him. Always he was curious about how things worked. He spent hours listening to his neighbor, a retired sea captain in Westwood, NJ. Cap Crockett had much seafaring knowledge to share. This led that little boy to became a Sea Scout on the New Jersey River nearby. Then he graduated from Admiral Billard Academy, a naval preparatory school on the Connecticut shore on Long Island Sound. His father, who was a dentist in New York City, encouraged him to follow his interest for two years at sea in the U. S. Maritime Commission’s Cadet Training Program. This program has since become the Merchant Marine Academy on King’s Point, N. Y. That little boy grew up to be John Pollock, a longtime Tiffin resident and engineer.
He started studying at the University of Michigan in naval architecture and engineering at the beginning of World War II. In l942, failing the vision requirements for the armed forces, he did his part for the war effort by working at the Toledo Shipbuilding Company as a hull draftsman and stress analyst. . One bit of work that he remembered proudly from that period was working out the calculations for the first side-launching of an icebreaker, the Mackinaw. That icebreaker is still “plowing” the lakes. He also worked in the Marine Design branch of the U. S. Army’s Transportation Corps Shipbuilding Division in Cincinnati.
Post war years found him back in the northeast, still shipbuilding and continuing his engineering education. He also became interested in the design and production of small boats and water safety equipment for summer camps and recreation areas at this time. Gradually his talents became more directed to mechanical engineering. A New Jersey housing shortage brought him and his wife, Mavis from Hewett-Robbins Engineers in New York to Webster Manufacturing in research. Although he never finished his engineering degree, his knowledge was so extensive that he passed the Ohio Engineer’s License Test on his first try. He worked at Webster about seven years and then established his own engineering design consulting service and machine shop on Riverside Drive. In the evenings, he taught engineering math classes at Heidelberg.
He continued his interest in water safety. Designing life saving devices and other water safety equipment became a part of his business. He was also interested in generating power with wind and water. He worked at generating his own power at his company on Riverside Drive.
Unfortunately, John was a heavy smoker and died of lung cancer June 3, l995. at the young age of 76. His will stipulated that the money generated from the sale of his Water Safety Company and other things he had collected through the years was to be put in a trust “to be used for the training and handling of boats under manual or sail power; public safety education as it affects boating and natural and applied science education, and to provide education for young people about boating safety and other marine education programs.” The trust stipulates that the funds must be used in the Sandusky River area.
Ron Von Blon, the owner of Grand Rental Station on Ashwood Road was appointed trustee of the fund. Much credit goes to him for his work arranging for the sale of John’s equipment and sorting through many, many books, some of which were quite valuable. Phil Kuhn, former county engineer and a friend of John Pollack, helped advertise the sale and locate buyers for the books. Now the fund has grown to $87,000 from its original $57,000 and is invested along with other small charitable funds by the Tiffin Charitable Foundation.
In l997 and l998 The U. S. Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla l0 – 03 located at Marblehead received a grant to teach water safety on Lake Erie. Archie Thomas, Dr. Michael Gardner, and Marion Drake helped teach that course.
The trust awarded $l600 in l998 to Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla 09E-1003 of Fremont to provide life preservers and other supplies for children’s water safety courses. The flotilla taught “Kids and Boats” and “Kids and Water” courses last summer.
A Water Safety Course is offered in the evenings at Sentinel to any one who is under l8. The fee for the course is $25, but if they successfully complete the course, the trust refunds the fee.
The trust helps buy equipment for the Campfire Girls unit at Fremont who conduct a water safety program for approximately 1500 children each year. They start practicing in canoes in a pond near Fremont, and later they have to pass a test in the Sandusky River. They have to fall out of a canoe, get it upright in the water, and get into the canoe again to pass the test. Some of the money also goes to a water safety program at Camp S’More.
John Pollack was well known to people in Tiffin. He was often seen in the Tiffin-Seneca Public Library when he waited for Mavis to finish working. We can all be grateful that he used his estate to provide funds for teaching marine safety to so many people.
– Percy