17 minute read
Many Hats, Mo' Cattle
Story by Clay Billman
Photos by Bruce Waterfield
When Austin Pollard was in first grade at Waukomis Elementary School, his teacher asked the students what their parents did for a living. The middle child of Barry Pollard stood up, paused for a moment and addressed the class.
“Well, my dad drives a tractor, and he takes care of the cows … and sometimes he operates on people’s brains.”
He wasn’t wrong. The recently retired neurosurgeon from northwest Oklahoma has done all that and more.
Dr. Pollard, a 1973 graduate of Oklahoma State University, wears many hats: farmer, rancher, business owner, board member, physician, philanthropist and Cowboy fan (not to mention husband, father and grandfather).
Although he recently retired from his pioneering practice of more than 40 years, Barry is busier than ever. A row of wooden rocking chairs on the Pollard’s front porch remains empty most of the time.
“I've always been goal oriented,” he says. “My engine gets going, and I just have to feed it by getting more stu done. I feel like I always have to be moving … ‘Gotta get it done! Gotta get it done!’ I probably have too much to do, but I have good help. I've surrounded myself with good people.”
Roxanne is a retired neurosurgical nurse who worked alongside her husband in the operating room for a number of years. She stays busy serving local non-profits, volunteering, spending time with 11 grandchildren and pitching in at Pollard Farms.
“I worked as a nurse o and on,” she says, “and then I also did some adjunct teaching at Autry Technology Center program here. In these last 10 years or more, I've just done lots of volunteer work in our community. I’m on the regional Food Bank Board and our Autry Tech board and just things that I'm interested in.”
“She’s been the chairman of everything in Garfield County,” Barry adds.
Roxanne was also appointed by the governor to serve on the Oklahoma State Board of Examiners of Psychologists.
The couple lives outside Waukomis, a rural community with a population of 1,200 five miles due south of Enid. There they raised five children, along with a niece.
Cowboy Roots
The oldest of six siblings, Barry grew up in Hennessey, Okla., about 45 miles west of Stillwater on Highway 51.
“My dad (Russell) was an ag teacher, and my mother (Patsy) was an elementary school teacher.”
Barry was destined for OSU since day one.
“Gosh, I can remember back in the day, whenever I helped my dad work cattle and farm, listening to Walt Garrison run through the line… my OSU history goes back even before then. My parents were graduates of Oklahoma State, so as I grew up, I naturally felt like this is where I wanted to go to college. All of my siblings are OSU graduates, as well. I think my mother has had close to 30 children and grandchildren graduate from Oklahoma State University.”
Barry joined FarmHouse fraternity and quickly became immersed in the college experience.
“That was a great group of guys and great friendships that have lasted forever,” he recalls. “We went to all the games. I remember the Floyd Gass days, and we had the ‘Gass Caps’ — little orange caps we all wore. Some of us would ride in a fire engine into the stadium before the game, right onto the field, and we’d jump o the fire wagon and run up and get our seats. It was a lot of fun.
“When I lived in FarmHouse across from Lewis Field, that was when they were digging out the stadium floor and taking the track out. There were carryalls running all the time, hauling dirt out to lower the playing surface 10 feet or so.”
Patsy and Barry Pollard
Literal Brain Surgery
Raised on a farm, Barry was initially drawn to a career in veterinary medicine, but the biochemistry undergrad found a di erent calling.
“Over the course of my education here, I decided I would prefer to go to medical school.”
Barry was accepted and attended the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine.
“I decided to go into neurosurgery in my fourth year of medical school. I struggled between wanting to do pediatrics initially, but I changed my mind after spending a couple of weeks with a pediatrician. I thought about orthopedics, which was a strong interest of mine, but neurosurgery won out. My neuroanatomy instructor was named the outstanding teacher at the OU Medical School many times, and he and I became great friends, so I really studied the neuroanatomy part.
“Then I started attending some neurosurgery conferences so I could learn a little bit more about what the field encompassed and what it was like. It was a field that intrigued me. It was considered the hardest program with the most strenuous training and commitment to time and work. A lot of the other medical students were frightened of neurosurgery, just the thought of it. But as I got to meet some of the neurosurgeons, spent some time with them, it became obvious to me that it was a real challenge and something I thought I'd really enjoy. I did a five-year residency in neurosurgery and finished that in 1982.”
As a board-certified neurosurgeon, Barry had his pick of hospitals.
“There were three di erent neurosurgery groups in Oklahoma City, and I was asked to join all three. But quite honestly, I did not prefer to live in a large city. Agriculture is my roots, and smaller communities are my roots. Enid was a
growing community at the time with a drawing area for patient care of about 200,000 people. There had never been a neurosurgeon in Enid. A ratio of one neurosurgeon to 100,000 people is considered plenty of work, but I'd be serving 200,000 people if I went there. So, I knew there'd be more than enough work to do, and in fact, I knew it would probably be very strenuous.”
He was right. From intracranial surgery for brain tumors or trauma to neck and spinal fusion to carotid endarterectomy to lessen the risk of stroke, Barry had no shortage of patients.
“The first four or five years were extremely strenuous because I was by myself. I didn't have anybody to assist me I was able to convince the hospital to get me a dedicated floor where I could train the nurses. I hired a nurse from Saint Anthony Hospital who was the head of the neurosurgery floor at that time — Regina Kraus is her name — and she joined me in Enid and was the one who helped train the nursing sta and be my associate there in the o ce and help take care of the patients. We worked together the entire 40 years. She was a great asset to the community and to the patients.
“Enid needed neurosurgery, and we were able to provide it. It was strenuous, it was stressful. We were overworked all the time, but it was very rewarding. And during that first year there I met Roxanne.”
“That’s what I was trained to do, and I loved my job,” she says. “It was a very fulfilling career.”
The couple married in 1992 and moved to the country — but they didn’t settle down.
Country Doctor
“I grew up in a farm-oriented background, cattle and ranching and farming, and so I used my evenings and weekends to evolve into that area that I loved,” he says.
That farm and ranch life became a welcome retreat after a day of stressful surgeries.
“Most of the time I never went directly home,” he adds. “I liked the outlet of being able to get in my pickup and just go and check my cows or get on a tractor and drive ... I wore my hospital clothes right out and got on the combine or got on the tractor. I'd come in at eight or nine o’clock with grease all over me — or cow manure — and that's just the way life was. I used to joke that I wore scrubs on the farm so the hospital would do my laundry.”
Pollard Farms is no small operation. Over the years, the Pollards have grown in scale, scope and sophistication.
“We farm about 7,000 crop acres and an equivalent amount of pasture grounds … it’s wheat, corn, soybeans and hay,” Barry says. “More significantly, I got involved in the American Angus Association. I started out raising a lot of stocker calves and was raising them to feedlot calves and then feeding them through the feedlots, and that was fine … But with my interest in genetics and my interest in trying to build something better, I wanted to go into the Angus industry where I could build my own herd, make my own matings with certain bulls, raise my own calves the way that I wanted them
“We do a 50K genomic test on every animal born. We track them from the day that they're conceived until the end, and it’s become a real big part of my life. We’ve grown our Angus operation into a rather large and probably one of the most respected herds in the United States, I believe. We just had our 25th sale — our 25th year — and it was the best
Pollard’s interest in genetics is a driving force in his cattle business, which boasts over 2,000 head of Black Angus.
“We do a lot of embryo transfer. Half of my calves are born with surrogate mothers because we can take the really super cows and stimulate them with hormones to produce more eggs than usual. Then those eggs are collected and then we fertilize those eggs, and they are put into a surrogate mother or one of the original cows. By doing that you can advance the genetics and propagate better cattle and better genetics at a faster pace.”
Pollard was recently named vice president of the American Angus Association — the nation’s largest beef breed organization, serving more than 22,000 members.
“I work closely with the genetic team there at the Angus Association. I’m also involved with the herd here at Oklahoma State University and the people that run it. They have a great herd of registered Angus cattle here at OSU … I’m very involved with the Animal Science Department over here, and Dean (Thomas) Coon and I work together with the Ferguson College of Agriculture.”
John Deere Green
Reliable equipment is essential to any operation, and farm implements are no exception. When Barry saw an opportunity to expand his portfolio, he took a leap of faith.
“The John Deere dealership in Kingfisher had been our local place where we went to buy equipment and parts back when I was a kid,” Barry explains. “It became available for sale in 1984, and I was able to purchase that dealership with a partner, Wendell Kirtley operations manager, was the ‘K’ on the P&K Equipment sign.”
The ’80s were an uncertain decade for the industry, Barry recalls.
“Those were rough years back then. Farming was not good. People weren’t making much money, and it was a dangerous, dangerous financial risk. But with Wendell’s leadership and my commitment to it and a lot of good employees, we were able to make it work. Several years later the Enid store became available for purchase, and I was able to assimilate that store as well. That’s the first time in Oklahoma any dealer had ever owned two of the larger stores together.
“Wendell retired when I bought the Enid location and so we didn’t change the name, we just adapted it to ‘Pollard & Kids.’”
P&K Equipment has since expanded to 29 dealerships throughout Oklahoma, Arkansas and Iowa.
“John Deere, at that time, was encouraging people to either get bigger or get out (of the business). They knew the technology that was coming down the pike for the future was going to require expert mechanical people and investment to a ord the machinery necessary to do that technical aspect of precision farming that we have today. So we set out on a path to get larger and to grow. I had good people. I had good employees. I was able to attract good leadership, and we made it really grow.
“Now I have several other partners in the business with me,” he adds. “Scott Eisenhower is my general manager, and Drew Combs is sales manager. My family is also deeply involved now in the business, including my three boys:
is a bank vice president, and Preston is our chief financial o cer and oversees the Iowa P&K division.”
Orange Blood
As their businesses have grown, so has their impact on OSU Athletics and the university. Barry and Roxanne have been POSSE members since the early ’90s, starting out with donor seating for football. Currently suiteholders with lifetime Athletics gifts totaling over $1.7 million, the Pollards rank in the Top 60 of OSU’s current POSSE contributors.
On gamedays, Pistol Pete makes his entrance to Boone Pickens Stadium atop a green — and orange — John Deere Gator, donated by P&K Equipment. A P&K flag flies in the donor parking lot each gameday.
“We have a P&K tailgate tent outside,” he says. “We cook for people, and it's kind of a special event.”
The Pollards have contributed more than $3 million to academics, including a recent million-dollar gift to the Ferguson College of Agriculture New Frontiers campaign. Barry founded OSU Medical Cowboys, which provides scholarships for future health care professionals. The family has also established a professorship in the Spears School of Business (currently held by Dr. Bailey Norwood) and funded additional scholarships through the College of Agriculture.
Barry served on the board of directors of the OSU Foundation and helped inspire other donations as the Foundation chair during the billion-dollar Branding Success campaign
“Ross McKnight asked me to serve on the OSU Foundation board of governors,” Barry says. “So I went to a lot of fundraisers to help raise money with Ross, (OSU President) Burns Hargis and (OSU Foundation President) Kirk Jewell. It was a great time.”
Barry says his favorite “fan” moment at an OSU sporting event also involved McKnight. The Pollards were guests in his suite for the 2012 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl versus Stanford.
“When we beat Stanford in the bowl game out there in Arizona, that was the greatest time,” Barry says, recalling the Cowboys’ thrilling 41-38 overtime victory. “We were in a suite with Ross and Don Humphreys and a whole bunch of other people. Grown men, at our age, were jumping up in the air and high-fiving each other … That was probably the most exciting sporting event I’ve been a part of, just a group of guys and their wives.”
Although Roxanne hails from Charlotte, North Carolina, she has bled orange for more than half her life.
“Where we live in northwest Oklahoma, it’s Oklahoma State country so I’ve been an OSU fan since I moved here in 1977. But marrying him increased that tenfold … I’m an adopted alumnae through Barry.”
Roxanne has long been a volunteer with POSSE events, including annual benefit auctions, where she was known for rolling up her sleeves and pitching in to fill various needs.
She has also served on the Women for OSU Council, which provides philanthropic leadership and engagement for alumni and friends of the university.
“Whenever Roxanne gets involved in something, it’s all in,” Barry says. “It just became a part of her life, and it’s been wonderful to see her involved in Oklahoma State University and the things that she does.”
“I’m much better at doing things than being the one that’s up there saying things,” Roxanne says, “so I really loved every minute of the POSSE auctions. Those were some fun times.
“Our involvement with OSU Athletics started a long time ago. I don't think we miss many bowl games. We used to go to Kansas City every year when the basketball tournament was
up there. We've met some of the greatest people through OSU Athletics and made friendships that have continued through all these years.
“If somebody asked what I like the most it would be the student-athletes, watching the kids go through (OSU) and achieve a goal and have scholarships and to be able to go to school … We’ve had the opportunity to meet them, get to know them, and that's why we give to the athletic scholarship fund.”
“When I was on the OSU Foundation board, Coach (Mike) Holder would come in and make a yearly presentation to us, and I was always struck by his interest in the student-athlete,” Barry says. “Winning is important, but following the rules and being a good person and getting an education was really foremost in his mind.
“Chad Weiberg has followed in those same footsteps — trying to provide an educational environment so they can have an occupation when they're done with college. I respect both of them as athletic directors in pursuing that goal and making the student-athlete important. Winning is important, but that is what I think distinguishes them from some other people.”
Barry believes the Cowboy Culture is special.
“One of the things that I find so rewarding is my association with other OSU alumni. My bankers are all OSU alumni. My lawyers are OSU alumni. My insurance agents are OSU alumni. I feel so comfortable working with people that have a similar background. It’s an innate trust that you have when dealing with people that came from our university. It’s a great feeling of respect for each other that I value very dearly.”
That type of trust led to frequent referrals, he adds.
“Because of my background and my OSU roots, I'd have people calling me from all over the state about their spine problems or cranial or brain problems.”
Twenty years ago, Barry got a call from a family that ran the John Deere dealership in Alva.
“‘We need you to see our dad,’” they said. I asked, ‘Why? Does he have some sort of neurosurgical problems?’ ‘He just needs a checkup, but he won’t see any doctor unless it's you.’
“Ordinarily, neurosurgeons don't do routine physicals. But for him, I did.”
Barry Pollard is no ordinary neurosurgeon.
