Longtime critic and ATCA member Joe Pollack dies

Longtime critic and ATCA member Joe Pollack dies

It is with great sorrow that we announce the passing of longtime St. Louis critic and ATCA member Joe Pollack on March 9.

According to an obituary on stltoday.com, he suffered either a heart attack or stroke. He was 81.

Joe was a member of ATCA for more than 30 years, served as a member of the ATCA executive committee and was a mentor to many of the younger (and experienced) critics in our organization.  He remained active in the organization, generally attending our annual conferences, most recently in Ashland, with his wife, Ann.

Joe spent more than two decades with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, where he worked as a theater and restaurant critic, before retiring in 1995. Since then, he regularly produced reviews for the public radio station KWMU and contributed stories and reviews to St. Louis Magazine and other outlets.On a personal note, Joe was the first person I met at my first ATCA conference in Atlanta in 1988. We wound up eating together in the food court below our hotel, recognizing each other only through our name tags. He was always encouraging, supportive and helpful, funny and insightful.We send our condolences to his wife, and children.— Jay Handelman