Morris Pollard (born May 24, 1916, in Hartford, Connecticut; raised on a farm in upstate New York) was the father of Jonathan Jay Pollard. A Jewish-American award-winning microbiologist, he earned a DVM from Ohio State University (1938), an MS from Virginia Polytechnic Institute (1939), and a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley (1950). During World War II, he served four years in the U.S. Army Veterinary Corps, rising to lieutenant colonel at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, where he investigated vaccines for diseases like Q-fever, typhus, and Bullis Fever, earning the Army Commendation Medal and multiple presidential citations for non-combat heroism. His career highlights include discovering the first retrovirus (avian myeloblastosis virus) in 1938 while with the U.S. Department of Agriculture; post-war work at the University of Texas Medical Branch (1946-1961) developing the first serologic test for hepatitis A, propagating trachoma virus in vitro, and creating diagnostic tests for poliomyelitis and rabies; and from 1961 to 2011 at the University of Notre Dame, where he was recruited by Rev. Theodore Hesburgh to serve as Professor of Biological Sciences (emeritus), Coleman Professor, Director of the Lobund Laboratory (nearly 50 years), Chairman of the Department of Microbiology, and Dean. There, he pioneered the germ-free Lobund-Wistar rat model for hormone-resistant, metastatic prostate cancer research, advanced virology and cancer studies, developed bone marrow transplants for leukemia and sarcomas, and explored treatments like non-steroidal anti-inflammatories for colon cancer, tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) for clots, soy protein for prostate cancer, and aspirin-like drugs for intestinal cancer. He published over 300 articles, edited Perspectives in Virology, and consulted for the National Cancer Institute, DoD, and DoE. Awards include the Hope Award (American Cancer Society), Distinguished Alumnus (Ohio State, 1979), Honorary Alumnus (Notre Dame, 1989), McLaughlin Faculty Fellow (Cambridge University, 1956), and Raine Foundation Professor. He was married to Mildred 'Molly' Pollard for 63-65 years (she died in 2003) and had children Harvey B. Pollard, Carol A. Pollard-Levy, and Jonathan Jay Pollard, along with two grandsons and five great-grandchildren.