David M. Pollard

The Comet that was David David Pollard, a close friend with a blazing idealism, was found lifeless in his apartment in New Jersey last Friday. He was apparently living alone. That’s him on the far right in the photo about 18 years ago in Berkeley, California where we were housemates for a while, and where I was often his sounding board for endless rants about the state of the world but also keen insights about developing the Filipino language, making Manila walkable, and saving the Philippine environment. He also had an impish side that I’d see when he’d invite me out so we could act like college guys. He exploited his mestizo looks to crash a formal gathering in San Francisco in honor of then visiting President Joseph Estrada and hand out protest messages printed on formal cards. It was that kind of audacity that others found endearing. He was a half-white, half-indio Pinoy-American who was madly in love with the Philippines. He ended up living there for more than a decade, establishing an environmental newspaper for Southern Tagalog called Balikas (with Nonoy Marcelo cartoons!) and helping start a green NGO called Pusod that is now based on the shores of Taal Lake. The ideals of that same NGO drew me and my wife to the lakeshore where we built a house and now spend much of our time. He had also convinced us to move to Berkeley for a couple of years (1999-2001) to immerse ourselves in the Fil-Am diaspora and set up a cultural center. We made friends there that we treasure today. So in a way, David deeply influenced the direction of our lives. I’ve never met anyone with a more intense and demonstrative idealism, and perhaps it was that fervor that eventually caused him to lose his balance and become withdrawn. He moved back to the US and became non-communicative with many of his friends about ten years ago when I too lost touch. But like a comet, his rapid journey had made its mark, and the flame he lit will remain long after he exits. - Howie G. Severino