Albert L. Pollock, 89, retired business owner

Albert L. Pollock, 89, of Havertown, a retired business owner, died of pneumonia Saturday at the Coatesville Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

For 30 years, Mr. Pollock headed Purveyors Market Service in Philadelphia. The firm provided credit to food-distribution companies.

After retiring in 1984 at 65, Mr. Pollock kept up a busy schedule, said his wife, Lucyle Landisberg Pollock. He delivered Kosher Meals on Wheels; learned Hebrew, and studied the Torah with Rabbi Abraham Levene at Lower Merion Synagogue; took creative writing courses at Temple University's Center City Campus; taught business courses at adult night school at Upper Darby High School; and led seminars on management for senior citizens at Haverford Night School.

Even after he began to show symptoms of dementia, he fought to keep his body going, working out at a gym regularly, his wife said. "He never gave up," she said. A former accomplished chess player, Mr. Pollock continued to play gin rummy, solitaire, and checkers until suffering his first bout of pneumonia four months ago.

Mr. Pollock grew up in Logan and graduated from Simon Gratz High School. He studied printing at a vocational school and then took a job at Curtis Publishing Co. in Philadelphia, where his father was a mechanic.

During World War II, he was a bombardier in the Army Air Forces in Europe.

After his discharge, he returned to Curtis and studied at the former Columbia School of Business in Philadelphia. He established Purveyors Market Service in the 1950s.

He and his future wife met at a New Year's Eve party and married in 1949. For years he was active with the YMHA on Broad Street in Philadelphia, and was its president for six years in the 1970s. While helping to raise his three children, he was a Big Brother to three other children, Jewish boys from deprived backgrounds. He helped prepare the boys for their bar mitzvahs and encouraged them to finish high school and attend college, his wife said.

In addition to his wife, Mr. Pollock is survived by daughters Sheryl Wagshal and Joan Sirkis; a son, Steven; 23 grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

A graveside service was held Monday at King David Memorial Park, Bensalem.

Memorial donations may be made to the Coatesville Veterans Affairs Medical Center Dementia Unit, 1400 Black Horse Hill Rd., Coatesville, Pa. 19320-2096.