Gladys M. Robinson Pollard died on July 21 in Haverhill following a period of failing health.
Born in Melrose on March 12, 1931, she graduated from Wakefield High School in 1948, attended Syracuse University and studied in the Senior College program at the University of Maine, Machias. She worked in the newspaper industry as advertising director and sales representative for the Daily Item in Wakefield, the Westfield Evening News and the Bangor Daily News. During her career she won several awards for her ideas and creativity in advertising. In 1979, she and her close friend James Higgins started a weekly newspaper “The Country Journal,” in Blandford, covering local news in 13 towns. The newspaper is still published today.
Pollard served as president of the Greenwood Junior Women’s Club, president of the Parent-Teachers Association of Melrose, president of the North Shore Advertising Club, president of the Otis Snowmobile Club and was a delegate to the Maine State Snowmobile Association. She also served as town assessor in Blandford and in Addison, Maine.
She enjoyed cooking, horseback riding, quilting and cross-stitching. She also loved the outdoors and was an avid rafter and snowmobiler. Two of her favorite trips were rafting the Colorado River and snowmobiling in Yellowstone National Park in 1985, the first year the Department of the Interior opened the park for winter visitors.
She and her late husband Richard S. Pollard lived in Addison, Maine, prior to his death in 2009, at which time she moved to York, Maine. She attended creative writing courses and in 2017 she published her first book, “The Tails of Megan,” based on a true story about her dog Megan, written in the third person.
She leaves four daughters, Sharon Caso of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Carol W. Wilkinson of Lubbock, Texas, Paula M. Nazarro of Mara, Texas, and Susan A. Darcy of Wake Forest, N.C. She also is survived by two stepdaughters, Melissa A. Pollard of Chester, N.H., and Jane M. Pollard of New Boston, N.H., a brother, Elliot H. Robinson of Madison, Conn., and her longtime special friend, Mr. Higgins. She also leaves nine grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, two nieces and a nephew.
In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Maine, 66 Mussey Road, Scarborough, ME 04074. Donations may also be made online. There are no calling hours. Arrangements by Driscoll Funeral Home, Haverhill.