{"id":13411,"date":"2025-09-17T11:37:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T15:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=13411"},"modified":"2025-09-23T11:21:29","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T15:21:29","slug":"the-man-the-mentor-the-legend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=13411","title":{"rendered":"The man, the mentor, the legend\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Tom Hipper \u201907 hopped on a plane at the tail end of his junior year to fly to Kentucky, <\/span>he knew the trip would be special. Not only was he about to attend one of the most prestigious <\/span>health communication conferences in the country, but he and another TCNJ student had been tapped to discuss their research in front of the field\u2019s heavy hitters.<\/span><\/p>\n

But nothing prepared Hipper for the moment when the crowd realized, with a gasp, that they were listening to the first undergraduates ever invited to present their work at this event. <\/span>\u201cWe just felt like rock stars,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople couldn\u2019t believe how young we were. Like, \u2018Where the hell did these two come from?\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The quick answer to that question was a small college hundreds of miles away from the state where they stood.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But the even better answer revolved less around a place than a person \u2014 a TCNJ professor on a mission to foster serious scholarship, to convince every one of his students that they could do research and write papers and stand toe to toe with the very experts whose work they studied <\/span>in class.<\/span><\/p>\n

The truest answer \u2014 and the heart of the story for Hipper and hundreds of students before and since \u2014 was John C. Pollock.<\/span><\/p>\n

And on that day, when the crowd at the Kentucky Conference on Health Communication gasped and showered his students with well-earned accolades, Pollock was there, too, proudly cheering them on. \u201cIt just doesn\u2019t get any better than that,\u201d Pollock says.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"John
John Pollock and Tom Hipper<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Since arriving at TCNJ in 1992, Pollock has shaped the lives of generations of students with a distinct and determined teaching style designed to launch them into the world \u2014 not once they graduate, but as soon as they step into his classroom.<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the past three decades, more than 600 students in Pollock\u2019s communication studies and public health courses have co-authored peer-reviewed papers on critical social issues, including immigration reform, reproductive rights, and child labor. They\u2019ve packed their bags and traveled to more than a dozen cities across the country to present their work at conferences with academics and communication professionals already decades into their careers. Along t<\/span>he way, they\u2019ve collected top awards from the National Communication Association, studied in South Africa, and done research for the United Nations.<\/span><\/p>\n

The achievements belong to the students, but year after year, Pollock has served as the spark that lights the flame. With an endlessly open door, he helps them wrestle with ideas, land internships, apply to graduate school, and map their futures. He makes them believe in all that is possible. <\/span>\u201cSo much of his career has been about helping his current batch of students start down this path and do cool things,\u201d says Hipper, an assistant clinical teaching professor and associate director of the Center for Public Health Readiness and Communication at Drexel University. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty amazing to see someone just almost entirely devoted to their students\u2019 success.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This fall, Pollock, now 82, began what will be his final year at TCNJ. For many grateful alumni, the moment is bittersweet; he\u2019s the kind of professor whose imprint extends long after graduation. \u201cI\u2019m explicit about saying, \u2018We\u2019re friends for life, so reach out anytime,\u2019\u201d Pollock says.<\/span><\/p>\n

And they do. On any given day, years after they\u2019ve collected their diplomas, Pollock\u2019s former students call him for job advice and pep talks and to announce publications and promotions. They invite him to their graduation parties and weddings and to the birthday parties of their c<\/span>hildren.<\/span><\/p>\n

This coming spring, they will call with heartfelt congratulations, amazed he\u2019s actually retiring; they thought he might stay at TCNJ forever. The decision to leave surprised Pollock, too. \u201cI always thought I would die here, because I love teaching,\u201d he says.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pollock \u2019s zeal <\/span>for education emerged during his boyhood in Dallas, where his godmother regularly took him to nearby Southern Methodist University to watch the commencement procession. The first time he glimpsed the faculty in their academic regalia \u2014 which he called \u201cwizard costumes\u201d \u2014 he was entranced. \u201cI wanted to be one of those magical <\/span>guys,\u201d he says.<\/span><\/p>\n

At Swarthmore College, Pollock studied political science and international relations and discovered a passion for research. But it was his professors\u2019 interest in student ideas <\/span>that changed his world. <\/span>\u201cIt was very much, \u2018Your opinions are as valid as mine,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re all smart people here. The professors had just been at it a bit longer.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

That spirit would anchor Pollock\u2019s teaching philosophy, as would his experiences conducting fieldwork in India while earning his master\u2019s degree in international public administration from Syracuse University and pursuing his PhD at Stanford. He carried the best parts of<\/span><\/p>\n

his education into his own classroom. Pollock taught political science and communication classes at Rutgers University and then at the City University of New York. But he also had a young family to support. So after a decade of teaching, Pollock made an unexpected detour to a public relations career. Despite success conducting public opinion research <\/span>and operating his own communication firm for seven years, he missed teaching.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1992, in his attempt to find a job back in academia, Pollock rang the communication studies department at TCNJ. To his relief, they hired him. \u201cI will always be indebted to TCNJ for hiring me,\u201d he says. \u201cI had been given a new life.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He arrived energized and ready to make up for lost time, setting goals for his classes that soared past simply mastering the curriculum. \u201cI wanted students to think way beyond the classroom,\u201d <\/span>Pollock says. \u201cI wanted them to feel empowered. I wanted them to realize how bright they were.\u201d The key, he decided, was helping them achieve professional \u2014 not undergraduate \u2014 levels of success. He designed a research-intensive method that mimicked the stages <\/span>of article production. Coining it the \u201cCommunication Commando Model,\u201d he warned students it might feel a bit much at first.<\/span><\/p>\n

Instead of tackling an array of unrelated essays and exams, Pollock\u2019s students immersed themselves in one semester-long project. The paper that emerged from their work wasn\u2019t meant to earn a passing grade to maintain their GPA, but to make a serious contribution to the field of <\/span>communication studies. There were extensive literature reviews and deep dives into methodology. And, in what became a brace-yourself rite of passage for thousands of students, there were Pollock\u2019s regular and very public in-class edits of works in progress.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was terrifying,\u201d says Kelsey Zinck Chado \u201914. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t you just getting back red marks to yourself, where you could sit and sulk at your desk. It was a reality check in a public forum.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But she found that she loved both the process and the demanding but charismatic professor who wore suits with a cowboy hat and told vivid stories about books he\u2019d written, fieldwork in South America, and his teenage years riding horses in Colorado. Though she\u2019d planned on a career in sports communications, publishing and presenting her paper from Pollock\u2019s class about health <\/span>conditions in Guantanamo Bay inspired her to instead pursue a master\u2019s degree in public health.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a total turning point,\u201d says Zinck Chado, program manager at the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. \u201cI felt like I wasn\u2019t just a college kid going to class. It was the first time I felt like I could really see a career path.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She wasn\u2019t alone. Pollock\u2019s high expectations and attention helped set scores of students on postgraduate paths they hadn\u2019t imagined possible. <\/span>When Ichiro Kawasaki \u201908 began Pollock\u2019s introductory public relations course, he was a junior in a quiet panic about a future he couldn\u2019t quite picture. But the work he did in class sparked an interest Kawasaki hadn\u2019t felt in other subjects.<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Pollock encouraged him to consider a communications career, connecting him to an internship at a local PR firm and later helping him apply to graduate schools. That step-by-step support launched a career that rocketed Kawasaki to the top of a Big Four accounting firm. <\/span>\u201cWhen I think about people who have impacted me the most in terms of my professional life, it would really start with him,\u201d says Kawasaki, now senior director for public relations at KPMG. \u201cHe saw something in me that no one else did. And if he hadn\u2019t seen it, I don\u2019t know where <\/span>I\u2019d be today.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"John
John Pollock in his home.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As much as Pollock\u2019s name remains top of mind for alumni like Kawasaki, their stories and successes have also helped Pollock inspire new generations of students. Soon after Lauren Longo \u201915 arrived in Pollock\u2019s class her sophomore year, she began to hear about \u201cThe GreatTom Hipper\u201d and his legendary presentation at the Kentucky Health Communication Conference. <\/span>\u201cDr. Pollock loves to talk about the students who came before you,\u201d says Longo, associate director of advocacy and communication at Children\u2019s Hospital of Philadelphia. <\/span>\u201cAnd then the next generation comes, and they hear about you. He always wanted to push his students \u2014 it sounds clich\u00e9 to say \u2014 to reach their top potential. But it\u2019s absolutely true of him.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Two years ago, Longo was one of a dozen former students who attended what she thought was Pollock\u2019s 80th birthday party but turned out to be his surprise wedding to writer Margaret \u201cPeggy\u201d Mandell. \u201cI never wanted to retire \u2018from,\u2019 just for the sake of retiring: I wanted to <\/span>retire \u2018to\u2019 something,\u201d he says. \u201cNow, life with Peggy is absolutely glorious. Now, I have something to retire \u2018to.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In the meantime, Pollock is ready for his last semesters. As always, his door will be open. Some students might discover a mentor who sends them down a new path. Others may find inspiration and role models in his stories about the graduate school acceptances, published papers, and <\/span>conference triumphs of the scholars who\u2019ve preceded them. Pollock\u2019s message to the students just starting out is simple but powerful: \u201cThey were students just like you, in this very same class,\u201d he says. \u201cThese aren\u2019t magical people with magical powers. And look what they\u2019ve been able to do.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Photos: Peter Murphy<\/em><\/p>\n

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