Pierce, Patricia M. (2/3/1981)

From our 30th reunion memorial service
Patricia Pierce was a policy-studies major and a charter member of Sigma Kappa, the first sorority on campus. After graduation, Patty worked for Arthur D. Little. In 1981, she lost her long battle with cancer, and Dartmouth lost one of her most vivacious daughters.

From the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine

On February 3, 1981, PATRICIA M. PIERCE, lost a long battle with cancer. Those who knew Patty, and the College as a whole, will deeply feel the loss.

A sister in Sigma Kappa and a very dear friend, “Piercie” or “p2” radiated a contagious optimism that swept up everyone with whom she came in contact. To Patty, Dartmouth was everything and she most vividly expressed her loyalty through her spirited support of Dartmouth athletics. She wore a the green with unequaled pride and, regardless of our standing in any event or on any issue, one could always find Patty chanting “We’re number 1.”

Patty lived each day full of love and laughs and though she was ill for most of her college experience, there were few who had knowledge of it. She was a policy-studies major and received two citations, both in English. Professor Jeffrey Hart remarked that “…she was an excellent student of literature.” Visiting Lecturer, David Daniell commented that Patty was “a student whose understanding of the practical study of Shakespeare led her to organize, with great devotion and skill, an excellent production of the opening scene of Hamlet…”

She was a member of both the Fire and Skoal senior society and the Student Advisory Committee. As a charter member of the first sorority on campus, Patty was inspirational in holding the group together during difficult early days. Because of her thoughtfulness and concern for others, she was elected the sorority chaplain. In her senior year, Patty played lacrosse on the JV team.

After graduation, Patty spent the summer on Nantucket before landing a job with the consulting firm of Arthur D. Little in Boston. Then, in true Patty fashion, she joined the Boston University women’s ice hockey team and a local lacrosse club.

Those of us who have shared a life with Patty lost a special friend who is loved and missed very, very much. Dartmouth has lost one of her most vivacious daughters. The class and Patty’s countless friends extend their deepest sympathy to the Pierce family.

From Mike Kelley D’79

Patty and I became friends because she was passionate about Dartmouth, Dartmouth sports and photography. I, too, had an interest in photography and sport, of course. Anyway, we were friends for virtually our entire time at Dartmouth. I enjoyed her enthusiasm and wit.

At graduation, she gave me a framed collage of pictures. There was a picture she took of Baker library, and several pictures of me with friends on the field after the ‘78 Princeton game (same setting as the above picture). I kept it as a reminder of Patty, a great person, with phenomenal strength of character and determination to live life as fully as possible.

She never let on how sick she really was. I was angry at not knowing, then realized Patty did not want pity, she just wanted to live. I admire her even more than before.
Photo courtesy of Mike Kelley

Appeared in Newsday on February 4, 1981

Patricia Marie Pierce, 23, Suffolk Consumer Aide

When young Patty Pierce went to work as a summer intern in the Suffolk County Department of Consumer Affairs in 1977, she kept two things secret from most of her fellow workers. One, that she was the daughter of Charles Pierce, board chairman of the Long Island Lighting Co.; two, that she had cancer.

Patricia Marie Pierce, 23, died of cancer at her family home in Lloyd Harbor yesterday morning.

“She was one of the finest employees,” Commissioner Kenneth Rosenblum said yesterday. “What a courageous young woman she was. Only a few of us knew that she was sick, and I think most of the people were surprised to find out that she was Charlie Pierce’s daughter.”

Rosenblum was the department’s legal counsel in those days. He said that Ms. Pierce worked as an investigator’s assistant, interviewing complainants and verifying what they said. She was deeply involved, he said, in an investigation of fraudulent health spas.

After her graduation from Dartmouth in 1979, she worked as an engineering consultant for the Arthur D. Little Corp, a consulting firm in Cambridge, Mass. She is survived by her parents, Charles and Virginia Pierce, a grandmother, Ida Shand Pierce; two sisters, Theresa Ann Crouch of Audobon, Pa., and Janet Duncan Pierce of New York City, and a brother, Charles, Jr., who is a student at St. Lawrence University, Canton, N.Y.

Mass at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, Route 25A, Huntington, at 9:45 AM tomorrow.

In memory of Patricia Pierce, the Class of 1979 has purchased the following book for Baker Library:

Gross, P., ed., Anthony Gross