Humanitarian Service Award Winner

The Humanitarian Service Award is presented for exceptional service to humanity through civic, faith-based or educational endeavors.

Mary Kilian Pollard, BVM ’48 (posthumously) 

After graduating from Clarke in 1948, Kilian Pollard joined the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary and in 1952, arrived at Saint Augustine’s School for African American children in Memphis, TN. She loved the school and the African American community and told her superior to forget her. Fifty-five years later, she was buried in Saint Augustine’s cemetery after spending her entire life there.

Her tenacious support of the African American community in Memphis was repeatedly recognized during her lifetime. Her students were poor, and colleges were not open to accepting Black candidates, but Kilian advocated tirelessly and successfully placed her students into colleges and even prestigious universities throughout the United States. Kilian also worked to influence the hiring of black doctors at Saint Joseph’s Catholic Hospital in Memphis, and these doctors, in turn, advocated to admit African American patients. When the diocese decided to close the Catholic high school for African American students, Kilian and other BVMs objected. In the end, they helped negotiate a merged school with African American and white students learning together.

In Memphis, Kilian taught in grade school and high school. She served as vice-principal, curriculum developer, and guidance counselor. When presenting the prestigious “Martyrs of Memphis Award” to Sister Kilian, Bishop Dozier of Memphis stated: “In a city known for its racial strife and sometimes marked by violent prejudice, Sister Kilian’s single-hearted service has been its humble constancy, its unswerving integrity. This is a woman who practices what she preaches! She treats all with dignity and thereby gives dignity. Sister Kilian is a woman of steadfast service, and she excludes no one. No doubt, many people have learned from her of their own dignity and the dignity of others.”