POND, Robert 1937-2017

“Because of Bob Pond, I performed on stage for the first time. Because of Bob Pond, I became an actor. Because of Bob Pond, I became a better actor. Because of Bob Pond, I became a director.”

Robert ‘Bobby’ Pond, son of Agnes MacNeil Pond, and nephew to John Patrick MacNeil and Rhodena MacNeil, of Cape Breton Island, passed away on July 29, 2017.

Because of his contributions, Anchorage theatre is rich with more than 50 years of homegrown talent and theatrical opportunity.

Born on February 8, 1937 in a working-class Boston neighborhood, the only son of a factory worker, Bob developed an early interest in opera and singing. Even with finances tight, his mother purchased a piano, and paid for voice lessons. In high school, he studied at the New England Conservatory of Music.

During his military service, he continued to pursue his passion for singing and acting. His transfer to Anchorage in 1957 began a lifelong relationship with Anchorage’s theatre community, starting with Frank Brink, the Anchorage Little Theatre, and the role of the clerk in Witness for the Prosecution.

At the end of his service in 1959, he followed the acting dream and moved to New York City. Performing a summer season in Woodstock, he earned his Actor’s Equity card (he also became a member of Screen Actors Guild later in life). The Metropolitan Opera hired him as a supernumerary actor for 17 operas.

Bob found his way back to Alaska in 1961, with a job as a state surveyor. He renewed his bond with the renamed Anchorage Community Theatre and its now Managing Artistic Director, Frank Brink. Bob was in the theatre preparing for a performance of Our Town at APU’s Grant Hall theatre when the 1964 earthquake hit. In spite of the chaos, Bob and the cast decided to perform the next day.

Bob became Anchorage Community Theatre’s Artistic Director and for 42 years led the growth of the city’s longest running theatre company.

Using theatre to build community is one of Bob Pond’s enduring trademarks.

His desire to build an even better theatre and a stronger community led him to earn a bachelor’s degree in History from the University of Alaska Anchorage and a Master of Arts in Theatre from Portland State University, and later in life returning for a second Bachelor’s at UAA in Education.

Bob lost his beloved wife, Roberta Lee Evatt, in 2012 after 43 years of marriage. He is survived by their two children, Teresa Kathleen Pond (also a Theatre Director and producer) and Sean-Michael Christopher Pond.