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William G. Pollard

American physicist (1911–1989)

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 1, 2026
Entity authorityQ8009569 ↗
Source-derived summary

William Grosvenor Pollard (1911–1989) was an American physicist and an Episcopal priest. He started his career as a professor of physics in 1936 at the University of Tennessee. In 1946 he championed the organization of the Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies (ORINS). He was its executive director until 1974. He was ordained as a priest in 1954. He authored and co-authored a significant amount of material in the areas of Christianity and Science and Religion found in books, book chapters, and journal articles. He was sometimes referred to as the "atomic deacon".

Life

He was born in Batavia, New York, in 1911. His father, Arthur L. Pollard, a mining engineer and bacteriologist, moved the family to Knoxville, Tennessee, when Pollard was twelve. Pollard had been raised in the Episcopal faith, but in high school ventured into the Unitarian Church.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “William G. Pollard” is american physicist (1911–1989). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through William, Pollard and American, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1911, 1989, 1936, 1946—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1911-01-01. For this dossier, William, Pollard and American is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “american physicist (1911–1989)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q8009569. VIAF identifies the subject as 85177747. The Library of Congress control number is n50020468. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1911, 1989, 1936 and 1946.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

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  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “William G. Pollard”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow William G. Pollard primary sources, William G. Pollard archive and William research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “William G. Pollard” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.