Obituaries

Pioneering doctor came from humble beginnings
By Robert D. Dávila
Sacramento Bee Special to The Monitor
SACRAMENTO, CA.–Dr. James Arliss Pollock, a pioneering Sacramento radiologist and dynamic civic leader who was active in the arts, business, community groups and the Republican Party, died Oct. 17. He was 74.
Dr. Pollock was born in 1933 and raised by cotton farmers in Mabank.

Dr. James Arliss Pollock Born: Sept. 28, 1933 Died: Oct. 17, 2007 Remembered for: Pioneering neuroradiologist with Radiological Associates of Sacramento; active in the arts, business and community groups, including Sacramento County Policy Planning Commission, Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Sacramento Theatre Company; Republican Party activist and campaign manager Survived by: Wife, Jeannie Sylvia of Sacramento; son, David Pollock of Sacramento; stepsons, David Marchiniak and Alan Marchiniak, both of Sacramento; and three grandchildren Remembrances: In lieu of flowers, donations in memory of Dr. Pollock may be made to the Sacramento Theatre Co., 1419 H St., Sacramento, CA 95814.

He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1954 and a medical degree from the UT Medical Branch in Galveston in 1958. He interned in Texas before serving four years in the Army.
He moved to California in 1963 and was a resident at Sutter Community Hospital in Sacramento and the UC Medical Center in San Francisco. In 1966, he was one of the first doctors on the West Coast to receive a neuroradiology fellowship from the National Institutes of Health. He returned to Sacramento, joined RAS and worked at Sutter Hospital.
He was active in medical organizations and received numerous professional and civic honors, including a leadership award presented last week by the Arts & Business Council of Sacramento. He was married for 39 years to Joyce E. Pollock, a leader of local and California arts groups, who died in 1993. He married Jeannie Sylvia in 1999.
Dr. Pollock, who joined Radiological Associates of Sacramento in the 1960s, was a nationally renowned expert in radiology. He was one of the first doctors in the country to specialize in neuroradiology and to perform modern cerebral angiography, colleagues said.
He authored a professional paper that is cited among the 100 most important radiology publications, and in 2001 he received the Gold Medal of the American Society of Neuroradiology.
He was a visionary who recognized the importance of new diagnostic technology, said Dr. David Seidenwurm of RAS.
When a regional health planning agency balked in the late 1970s at bringing the first CT scanner to Sacramento, Dr. Pollock organized a group of colleagues who put up money to acquire the equipment for Sutter Hospitals.
“Arliss was always ahead of the curve,” Seidenwurm said. “He saw that a doctor’s responsibility was first to his patient, but also to organize access to the provision of care for the whole population.”
Dr. Pollock’s leadership extended to other areas of community life. He served on the Sacramento County Policy Planning Commission, the Capitol Area Committee and the American River Parkway Foundation. He was a past president and board member of the Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and the Sacramento Area Commerce and Trade Organization.
He was active in civic campaigns for clean air, flood control and traffic improvements, including efforts to pass the Measure A transportation sales tax. He volunteered and raised money for charity, including Big Brothers/Big Sisters and the Sacramento Children’s Home.
He served six years on an advisory committee for the Sacramento Opera Association.
He was a board member and past president of the Sacramento Theatre Company, where he shepherded a financial turnaround and better pay for performers, artistic director Peggy Shannon said.
“He was a distinguished radiologist, but you would have thought he was a theater manager because he felt so passionately about the arts,” Shannon said. “He believed to his core that the theater company and the arts are the heart and soul of the community.”
Dr. Pollock also was an influential Republican Party loyalist. He chaired Ronald Reagan’s 1980 campaign for president in Sacramento County and actively supported other GOP candidates, including George Deukmejian, Mike Curb, Pete Wilson and Sandra Smoley.
He also worked behind the scenes to recruit Republicans to run for office.
“He was so intelligent and found politics vastly interesting,” Smoley said. “He loved strategy and thinking through plans. When I ran for Congress in 1978, he took a three-month leave from his radiology work just to manage my campaign.”
Dr. Pollock was an athletic man who enjoyed playing tennis, scuba diving, snow skiing and riding horses. He was a quiet Texas gentleman, sometimes stern and intimidating, but with a dry sense of humor and a strong sense of loyalty, family and friends said.
“He was not a man of many words, but you always knew that when he said something, you’d better listen,” Smoley said. “But as you knew him well, you knew he liked you and didn’t have to show it. He was just always there for you.”