Seth Pollack, who led CSUMB's Service Learning Institute for 25 years, dies in a bicycle crash.

Seth Pollack lived his dedication to service, both in his personal life and his profession. Pollack, who began teaching at CSU Monterey Bay's Service Learning Institute in 1997 and led it until he retired in 2022, died on Friday, Dec. 5. He was 66 years old. 

Pollack, an avid bicyclist, was struck by an SUV in Pebble Beach at about 9:15am. He died at the scene. The driver, a 62-year-old woman from Pebble Beach, was turning left onto Crespi Lane while driving southbound on 17-Mile Drive when she collided with Pollack. No charges have been filed against the driver, and an investigation into the cause is still pending. A CHP spokesperson says alcohol and drugs are not suspected as factors in the collision. 

Pollack, an active bicyclist, was born in New York and raised in Boulder, Colorado. He spent five years in West Africa, including serving in the Peace Corps in Mali.

He and his wife Naomi moved to Monterey in 1997 when he became the first faculty member teaching in the Service Learning Institute, developing a curriculum that brought students into direct delivery of services with partner agencies active in addressing challenges like hunger and homelessness, and studying (and implementing) strategies for universities to be agents of social change.

Part of the curriculum was getting things done. "You can't just have these great dreams," he said. "We moved the City [of Salinas] to confront things they didn't want to confront."

In his work educating students about service in theory and in practice, Pollack constantly advocated for the underdog. 

In a recent interview with the Weekly, he recalled attempting to explain his work running the Service Learning Institute to his mom: “I teach people how to be a mensch in the world.” 

He will, undoubtedly, be remembered as a mensch himself. 

More recently, he recalled describing his career to new people with a relatable joke: "I'm the chair of woke studies," he would say. 

After he retired from CSUMB in 2022, Pollack continued on his mission of advancing social justice in a volunteer capacity. "I said, the one thing I have not really put any energy into in terms of understanding privilege is my connection to Israel/Palestine. I want to start focusing on that," he said in a recent interview. "I want to bring my social justice mindset to trying to understand what can I do." 

That understanding led him to read voluminously about the conflict, and to get involved in the national organization J Street. He worked in recent years to cultivate local participation, particularly after the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023.

He has long been active in Congregation Beth Israel in Carmel, where he has served on a number of leadership committees over the years. 

In his advocacy work with J Street, Pollack said he was hoping to encourage discussion and to open people's minds, in the same way his had been opened by reading extensively about Israel. He determined to get involved in moving a "pro-peace agenda forward" and to engage as many fellow congregation members—and elected officials—as would listen. 

"I have seen so many attempts to have this conversation fail in Jewish contexts because it puts our people on the defensive and they close down," he said. "I’m really working to find ways and moments and approaches to help our community take in different stories than those they’ve heard." 

Under Pollack's leadership, the Service Learning Institute was twice recognized with the White House President’s Award for Community Service in Higher Education in 2006 and 2010. In 2005, he received the Thomas Ehrlich Faculty Award for Service Learning. He held a PhD in international development education from Stanford University. 

In 2008-09, Pollack was a Fulbright scholar in South Africa, studying the integration of service learning and social justice into higher education. During the 2017-18 academic year, he was a European Union Fulbright-Schuman Scholar in the UK and Italy, focusing on the public mission of higher ed in Europe. He documented that time abroad with a blog, including photographs of his extensive bicycle travels. 

Surviving family members include his wife, Naomi, and their two daughters, Alexandra and Maya.

Pollack's funeral will take place at 10am on Wednesday, Dec. 10 at Congregation Beth Israel.