Pollard named editor of Boca Beacon

Garland Pollard has been named as the new editor of the Boca Beacon and Gasparilla Island Magazine. He will take the place of long-time editor Marcy Shortuse, who started as a writer with the Beacon in 2007 and has held the position of editor since 2010. She was editor-in-chief of Gasparilla Island Magazine since its inception in 2013. Prior to working here, she worked at the Gasparilla Gazette from 2003 to 2007. (See her editorial on page 5).

As did the editor before him, Garland will also supervise the satellite publications offered by Boca Beacon parent company, Hopkins & Daughter, Inc.: Tarpon Times; 4-Digit Phone Book and The Boca Beacon Visitor’s Guide.

Before joining the staff of the Beacon this July, Pollard was web content editor for the brokerage and bank firm, Charles Schwab. He also served for a decade as director of communications for the Episcopal Diocese of Southwest Florida, where he supervised their web operations and published their magazine, Southern Cross and email newsletters. He was previously editor of the state of Florida’s tourism content for the relaunched VisitFlorida.com.

A native of Virginia before moving to Florida, he was founding editor of Virginia Living magazine and The Richmond State newspaper. He also served as an editor for Richmond’s Style Weekly and Petersburg’s Progress-Index.

A graduate of the University of Richmond, he now lives in Placida with his wife, Alice Blum Pollard, and their foxhound Birdie. The Pollards have three daughters – Heather, Courtney and Annie, and three grandchildren.