Part 5: Dr. Richard "Pogo" Poglitsch Leaves a Colorful Legacy

You couldn't miss him. He insisted on that.

The bald, gregariously upbeat character with the wild "Zubaz" pants and mis-matched colorful Hawaiian shirts was a lifelong village resident, a 1972 Greendale High School graduate and answered to the name "Pogo." Not Richard. Not Dr. Poglitsch, the dentist. Just Pogo. Always Pogo, even to his wife, Sue. And he had funny nicknames for others as well that he shared right up to the end on a website ("The Pogo Blog," of course) he created when first diagnosed with Glioblastoma ("If you had a choice of picking tumors," he wrote, you would pick this one last."), a most malignant form of brain tumor discovered in January of 2009. The neurosurgeon that removed the largest of three tumors a month later on Feb. 6, 2009, for instance, was dubbed the "Grim Reaper." During recuperation from surgery and while physically able to walk from his Skylark Lane home to the village center, Pogo jokingly (and warmly) referred to his hometown as "Royville," and a certain destination as the "Royville Visitors Center" (for you non-Greendalers this is a light-hearted reference to local publisher/philanthropist Roy Reiman, the driving force behind the business district's recent makeover). Pogo, not surprisingly, often referred to himself in the third-person on his blog, and kept a physical and mental "scorecard" to regularly update his family and countless friends on the state of his health. One month and one day after surgery he graded his attitude as "extremely positive" and rated it a 13 on a scale of 1 to 10. "I already feel great and I put people I meet in a great mood also," he wrote. "It's almost impossible to get me down and if anyone needs a Pogo Booster to make them feel better, just give me a call." When he travelled to Mexico for further treatment he became, naturally, "El Pogo."

"He had a loud personality and it wasn't just the pants," said Jessica ("Jessie") Poglitsch Runnells, 29, fondly of her irrepressible father. "He liked to be the center of attention and his sense of humor was always there, even after his diagnosis and up to the last week of his life. It may have been a bit of a show at the end because he didn't want us to ever see him struggling, but he was always cracking jokes with the nurses and tried to make sure everyone was comfortable. We probably took it harder than he did because he was always positive and ready to fight even while we were ready to fall apart."

The fateful end came for Pogo on Aug. 1, 2010, about a year and a half after his initial diagnosis, but not before putting every ounce of effort (and positive energy) into researching ways to fight his cancer, and following up on his findings. Indeed, one month before Jessie's marriage to Cory Runnells in June of 2009, Pogo returned home from an experimental, clinical-trial laser procedure in Ohio (without the knowledge of his local doctors), with his body partially paralyzed as a result of the treatment. He then spent every waking minute of the following four weeks working valiantly to restore the strength in his legs so that he could walk Jessie (he kept this battle a secret from her) down the aisle. Not until the Friday before the wedding was he released from rehab and realize he would be able to succeed with his goal.

"I don't know how he did it, but he worked a month straight to be able to be there," said Jessie, as the tears flowed at the memory of that day. "It's a moment I will never, ever forget."

Jessie, interestingly, was so impressed and "in awe" of the nurses at St. Luke's Hospital and the quality of care given her father that she's given up her job as a Kindergarten teacher in order to pursue a career in nursing herself. She has a little more than a year of school left before she earns her degree from MATC and will then be able to "give back" in reciprocation and in honor of her Dad.

The funeral service for Pogo last August was, predictably, well-attended and turned into a six-hour celebration of his life rather than a subdued wake. Many in the throng came appropriately dressed in bright Hawaiian shirts or shorts, colorful Zubaz pants or softball uniforms. An open-mike setup was popular and used for personal testimonials and an endless supply of humorous stories. "He would have loved it," said Jessie.

On Saturday, June 18, Jessie and Cory, her sister, Lisa Jackson, 28, and husband, Jack, and their brother, Brad, 21, and mother Sue will join more than 50 friends and extended family members and take part in the 2nd annual "Greendale Community Charity Walk" for the American Brain Tumor Association and "Step Up to Health" initiatives in the village. All participants in their group will be wearing specially-designed, same-colored t-shirts made for the event in honor of Pogo. Lisa and Jack's three-year-old son, Parker, the first Poglitsch grandchild, should also be in attendance along with his brand-new little brother with an evocative, luminous middle name, 10-day-old Jackson Pogo Packard.

***This is the fifth of part of  a series of articles about people who had brain cancer or have lost someone to the illness.