Uncrowned Community Builders

Henry Pollard, Jr.
Written by: Charles H. Campbell

Mr. Campbell is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Rho Lambda Chapter, Buffalo, New York

Henry Pollard, Jr. was born in 1919 in rural Georgia to Henry and Pauline Pollard. In the 1920s the family moved to Buffalo.

Henry graduated from Fosdick-Masten Park High School. He became a local musician playing the saxophone and was a member of Local 533 (Colored Musicians Club).

Henry enlisted in the Army on June 9, 1942 in Buffalo. He was noted as being employed as a musician and/or teacher of music and single with dependents. After serving in the military police in Oswego, New York and attaining the rank of staff sergeant, Henry applied for and was accepted into the Army Air Corp. He trained to become a Tuskegee Airmen Pilot and was commissioned on December 5, 1943.

Second Lieutenant Pollard was initially sent to North Africa and later reassigned to Italy. On May 22, 1944, he died instantly in a plane crash in the "line of duty" of a non-battle related incident during the war. Henry Pollard Jr. is buried in the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery and Memorial near Rome, Italy.