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Brandon Church Congregation Weeps For Pastor, His Son

Tribune photo by JIM REED

Sheriff David Gee wipes tears as Senior Associate Pastor George Thomasson talks with reporters outside Bell Shoals Baptist Church.

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By MICHELLE BEARDEN, D'ANN LAWRENCE WHITE and BAIRD HELGESON

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 14, 2008

BRANDON - The Rev. Forrest Pollock was just a few weeks from officially dedicating Bell Shoals Baptist Church's new 3,400-seat worship center, a sprawling sanctuary that took more than two years to build.

For the senior pastor who gave up a successful business career to answer a spiritual calling, the June 1 ceremony was to be yet another milestone for an active, close-knit congregation.

Instead, a tragedy in the rugged, mountainous terrain of western North Carolina has church members preparing for something unimaginable: the funeral of Pollock and his son Preston, 13, who died in a single-engine plane crash Monday.

"We have not lost Forrest Pollock. We know just where he is. One day there will be a reunion time," the Rev. George Thomasson, Bell Shoals' associate pastor, told 100 staff and church members Tuesday as he struggled to hold back tears.

Others, including Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee, a member, openly wept.

Search aircraft located the wreckage of Pollock's six-seat Piper about 9 a.m. near Cold Mountain, about 20 miles outside Asheville, N.C., after picking up the signal from the plane's emergency transponder.

Because the wreckage was on steep, inaccessible land, it took two hours for crews to hike from the closest drop site to the crash scene.

Pollock had flown to North Carolina with Preston and 14-year-old daughter Brooke to visit Pollock's mother, Thomasson said. On Monday, about 5 a.m., he and Preston left the Rutherford County Airport to fly to Little Rock, Ark., where they planned to pick up another passenger for a flight to a Christian networking conference in Texas.

That intended passenger alerted authorities when Pollock failed to arrive.

The rural airport is a small facility with no air-traffic-control tower, which leaves the decision to fly up to the pilot, said Maj. John Maxfield, with the Civil Air Patrol. The National Weather Service reported wind gusts up to 36 mph about the time he took off.

There's no indication the wind caused the crash, Maxfield said. He also cautioned against blaming pilot error.

The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash.

Pollock Had Been A Pilot For 13 Years

Pollock was an accomplished pilot who would have erred on the side of caution when deciding whether conditions were good to fly, Maxfield said. Pollock had held a pilot's license since at least February 1995, according to FAA records. His last flight physical certification was in January.

The Piper is registered to a for-profit company in Helena, Mont. The 1966 aircraft was worth $57,000 to $119,000, depending on its condition and upkeep, said Molly Pearce, a vice president of marketing for Southeast Piper in Tallahassee.

Since 1982, aircraft like the one Pollock owned have been involved in 22 crashes, according to the NTSB. Perhaps the most famous involved the late John F. Kennedy Jr., who crashed a modern version of the plane off the coast of Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts.

Pollock, 44, who led Bell Shoals for 5 1/2 years, was married to the former Dawn Allen. Besides Preston and Brooke, they had four other children: Courtney, 15, Hope, 11, Blake, 10, and Kirk, 8.

When Pollock arrived at the church, it was already large and vibrant, and it continued to grow under his stewardship. Founded in 1961 with 86 charter members, it now has about 7,500 members, with about 3,000 attending services regularly. Bell Shoals Baptist Academy has 650 students from preschool to eighth grade.

It has been active in the community and outspoken about political issues. In 2007, the church hosted the Family Impact Summit, a conference that drew national leaders of the religious right to discuss gay rights, Islam and abortion, among other topics. The gathering prompted protests by gay rights groups.

'He Was Brilliant,' Pastor Says

Hundreds of grieving members made their way to the sprawling 39-acre campus on Bell Shoals Road all day Tuesday, shocked and seeking comfort.

"That's how it is with us," Deb Warmouth said. "We support one another. We'll grieve, but we'll bounce back. We'll heal and we'll go on."

The Rev. Ken Whitten, pastor of Idlewild Baptist Church in Tampa, was at a retreat in Crystal River with fellow ministers when he got the news. Through tears, he remembered his friend and colleague.

"He was a model husband and father ... a motivating pastor," Whitten said. "He was brilliant."

Pollock was working on his second master's degree from Harvard University.

Whitten remembered that when his friend got the call for the position at Bell Shoals, he was elated.

"Forrest would tell me, 'I won the lottery!' Not in a material sense, but in a spiritual sense. ... Congregations know when pastors love them, and Forrest loved his people. And they loved him back."

Pollock replaced the Rev. Ken Alford, who resigned in February 2002 after admitting to an "improper relationship."

The fellowship survived and thrived, and will do so again, said Liz Montefu, a member since 1993.

"The strength in reading the Scriptures, in prayer and in the Holy Spirit. That's what will get us through," she said.

She remembers getting a personal note from Pollock on the one-year anniversary of her mother's death. That's the kind of person he was, she said, "A pastor of a big church who took the time to remember such things."

Montefu, who teaches music at the church's academy, said adults began praying and counseling the students after Pollock's plane was reported missing. She said students were experiencing a range of emotions over losing both their pastor and their 13-year-old classmate.

The message they got was the one often preached by Pollock: "God is in control. We know our pastor and his son are incredibly happy now. Now it's up to us to comfort each other and the grieving family."

Students from Preston's sixth-grade class were brought into the church sanctuary and told the news. Simeon Nix, associate pastor of music, said the youngster, who enjoyed fishing, was "a lot like his dad."

"He was a wonderful young man, sweet-spirited ... a lot of fun," Nix said.

The new state-of-the-art sanctuary, which just opened, was a vision of Pollock's, who once owned a television production company and had worked as a journalist. He wanted the church to be a place where people would gather and socialize.

Member Anita Cicchino said it will stand as Pollock's legacy.

"But it's not about the building," she said. "Pastor Pollock could have set up a tent and started preaching and would have had the same effect. Every sermon he preached had the right ingredients of humor and inspiration."

Pollock's mother and daughter were expected to fly to Tampa on Tuesday night. In lieu of flowers, the family has asked donations be made to the church's Greater Glory building fund.

Memorial service plans were not complete Tuesday.

Staff from the Christian Counseling Center of the Tampa Bay Baptist Association will be on hand this week to assist church members who are having a difficult time coping with the news. Director Robbie Goss said he expects some congregants to go through several stages of grief - shock, panic, depression and loss, among them.

"He's one of those jewels you hate to see go," Goss said. "But as Christians, we have to keep our eyes on the hope that goes beyond this world. There's a bigger kingdom ahead for us."

Bernice Wolf of Congregation Rodeph Sholom of Tampa knows exactly how the congregation feels.

In July 1989, her rabbi and his wife, Kenneth and Aviva Berger, and two of their three children were on United Airlines Flight 232 en route to Philadelphia to visit his family.

The plane crashed in a cornfield in Sioux City, Iowa. The children survived; their parents did not. Wolf was at work when she got the call.

It was one of the worst days of her life, she said.

"The one you usually go to in times like this wasn't there," Wolf said. "That was the hardest part. We felt so lost."

It took several years for the congregation to recover. Many did not return to the synagogue, saying it was too painful. They finally found their permanent replacement in Rabbi Marc Sack in 1995, and the healing process began.

"It does get better," she promised. "Now I think of the good memories and the happy times. Turn to God and turn to prayer, and comfort each other. You will get through this."

Reporters Keith Morelli and Neil Johnson contributed to this report. Reporter Michelle Bearden can be reached at (813) 259-7613 or mbearden@tampatrib.com.

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