Katherine Weiss Pollak, 89, former Penn vice dean
Katherine Weiss Pollak, 89, of West Mount Airy, a former vice dean at the University of Pennsylvania and the widow of renowned federal Judge Louis H. Pollak, died Sunday, Sept. 18, of a stroke at her home.
Katherine Weiss Pollak, 89, of West Mount Airy, a former vice dean at the University of Pennsylvania and the widow of renowned federal Judge Louis H. Pollak, died Sunday, Sept. 18, of a stroke at her home.
She was 12 days shy of her 90th birthday.
Ms. Pollak was a vice dean of the College of General Studies at the University of Pennsylvania from 1976 to 1997. While there, she developed a postbaccalaureate premed program for students who had opted for a medical career too late to take advantage of Penn's undergraduate science courses.
"Kathy interviewed every student," said Penn colleague and friend Janet Theophano. "She had very high standards and she wanted to be cared for by the next generation of human doctors, people who cared for their patients and wanted to make a difference in the world."
The program she developed became a model for others in universities nationwide.
Ms. Pollak was famous for the letters she wrote to medical schools on behalf of program participants. The letters were "personal, exquisite, and like portraits," offering administrators a window into the candidates' lives, Theophano said. Not unsurprisingly, a lot of them were accepted at the medical schools they preferred.
Theophano described Ms. Pollak as "mesmerizing, charismatic, and extremely honest." The two stayed in touch for 36 years.
Ms. Pollak was married for almost 60 years to U.S. Eastern District Court Judge Pollak.
Born in New York City, Ms. Pollak was the third of four children of Aline P. and Louis S. Weiss.
She was a gifted athlete "who threw [a softball] better than a boy," said daughter Sally Pollak. Ms. Pollak also excelled at basketball and tennis.
Ms. Pollak was recruited for - but didn't join - the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, made famous in the 1992 movie A League of Their Own. Instead, she campaigned for Henry A. Wallace, the Progressive Party presidential candidate who in 1948 ran unsuccessfully against Harry S. Truman.
That same year, Ms. Pollak graduated from Smith College and taught public school in New York City before marrying Pollak in 1952. At the time, he was employed by her father, a founding partner of the New York law firm of Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison.
The couple raised a family in New Haven, Conn., and, later, Philadelphia. "She was passionately devoted to her husband and their five daughters and many grandchildren," said another longtime friend, Lois Whitman.
Ms. Pollak had diverse interests. She enjoyed carpentry, painting, making baby and wedding quilts for friends, sewing Halloween costumes, and singing.
Besides her daughter, she is survived by daughters Susan, Nancy, Libby, and Debby; seven grandchildren; and a sister.
Funeral arrangements were pending.
Donations may be made to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, via http://www.naacpldf.org.
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