Pastor Charles Lee Pollard, described as “mild” and “happy” by his sister, managed to love his enemies, even on the battlefield, and served as a pastor to bikers.

“He was a pastor and he loved the Lord with all his heart,” said his sister, Leah Pollard Bartell of East Berne. “He ministered to bikers. He actually had an honor guard of bikers going to the funeral.”

Pastor Pollard died in his home in Calverton, Long Island, on Sunday, May 17, 2015. He was 78.

Born on April 25, 1937 in Tarrytown, New York, he moved with his family to the Altamont area when he was 10. His father, Charles Pollard, worked for Albany Felt Company and his mother, Leah Pollard, worked for Metropolitan Life.

“He was my hero,” Mrs. Bartell said of her older brother. “I always looked up to him. He was adventurous....He liked to go fishing. He didn’t have to take me along, but he did.”

On one trip to the Normanskill, Mrs. Bartell recalled, she jumped into a bees’ nest. “He picked me up and carried me to the bank where he made a muddy area and rolled me in the mud,” she said. The stinging stopped.

“He was someone you could always rely on,” said Mrs. Bartell. “He was dependable.”

She also remembered her brother driving her to Dutcher’s for ice cream treats.

He played on both the Voorheesville and Guilderland football teams as he attended school at both places, she said. “They called him Crazy Legs,” she went on. “He was smaller than the other men that were playing but he could run faster than them.”

He served in Korea with the Army’s 24th Infantry division from 1955 to 1958. “All of us were emotionally distraught,” Mrs. Bartell said of the family when her brother went to Korea. “He was there 18 months, after the war ended...He told me a year ago how the Chinese soldiers came down off the hills. The Americans thought they were armed and fired on them, killing them.”

They found out afterwards the Chinese men hadn’t been armed. “He talked about how brave they were,” Mrs. Bartell said of her brother who was able to love his enemies.

Mr. Pollard married Mary Hood Pollard on Sept. 5, 1958 in Lawton, Oklahoma. They raised two sons. He worked for 18 years as a parts manager at Glennon Buick Cadillac in Southampton; he was a parts manager for Riverhead Building Supply.

Mr. Pollard was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease 15 years ago.  “He had a good, hard fight for 15 years,” said his sister. “He was a hero, even with that. He’s actually better off now. He needed to go home to the Lord. He died at home with myself and his wife and his son with him. He went peacefully and quietly.”

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He is survived by his wife of 57 years, Mary Pollard; his sons, Charles Pollard Jr. and Rance Pollard; and his grandson, Austin Knodler of Calverton; his sister, Leah Pollard Bartell, and her husband, Leo Bartell of East Berne; Lee Ann Cullen of Quincy, Massachusetts; and Stacey Iveson of Colonie.

Pastor Pollard had a military funeral; interment was at Calverton National Cemetery on May 21, 2015.

— Melissa Hale-Spencer