Anthony Pohl

Anthony Simon Pohl passed away on 21 May 2015 at Christus Santa Rosa Hospital in San Antonio, Texas. He was 87 years old. He was born on 17 July 1927 of Frederic and Eugenia Pohl in Manhattan, New York City. His parents had emigrated from Europe a few years earlier. The family returned to Europe after the start of the Great Depression, and Anthony was raised in Strasbourg, Alsace France, until the Germans invaded Poland in 1939. The Pohl family then spent the rest of the War as internally displaced persons in Lyons, France.
As a teenager, Anthony Pohl worked in support of the French Resistance against the German occupation. Following the War, his father, a musician and orchestra conductor, was appointed to be the conductor of the orchestra of the opera of Lyons. Anthony followed classical acting studies at the conservatory, and initially followed in his father’s musical footsteps, becoming the Administrator of the opera in Lyons. While he was a classical acting student, he met a fellow student and instructor, Denise Dechaux, whom he married in 1954.
As a natural-born U.S. citizen, Anthony Pohl decided it was his duty to enlist in the American army following the War. He served in the Criminal Investigation Division for nine years. His service as a non-commissioned officer in the U.S. Army eventually took him and his wife to the United States. The Pohls had two children, Beatrice and Dominic, and Anthony’s wife Denise became a naturalized U.S. citizen.
Following his service in the Army, Anthony continued his career in law enforcement, joining the Federal Bureau of Narcotics as a Special Agent of the Treasury Department. His federal law enforcement career continued for thirteen years in the Bureau and its successor organizations, the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs and the Drug Enforcement Administration of the Justice Department. Anthony Pohl held posts in the Chicago, New York, and Washington offices. As a Special Agent he advanced to senior leadership positions, eventually serving as Associate Regional Director with a federal rank equivalent to a military general officer. Anthony Pohl was directly involved in the highest profile federal drug interdiction cases of the 1970s, to include the French Connection case. He received numerous commendations and citations, including from the President of the United States.
Anthony Pohl left federal government service in late 1974 to enter the private sector. He joined IBM, where he served as a senior executive for industrial security for 19 years. His assignment locations included Westchester County, Corporate Headquarters in Armonk, and overseas locations in Paris, France and Tokyo, Japan. He was a member of the American Society of Industrial Security professionals, and traveled extensively in Latin America and the Far East.
Anthony Pohl retired in 1993, and lived out his retirement in White Plains. He remained active in retirement, serving for a time as the Board President of his cooperative association. Anthony’s wife Denise passed away in 2004. Anthony Simon Pohl is survived by his daughter, Beatrice, as well as his son Dominic and daughter-in-law Denise, and four grandchildren, Theresa, Emily, Louis, and Isaac.
The funeral Mass for Anthony Simon Pohl will be celebrated at 9:30 in the morning on Tuesday, May 26 at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Roman Catholic Church in White Plains. The burial will be at Gate of Heaven Cemetery.