John K. Pierce ’54

John K. Pierce ’54 passed away on February 17. He was born in Portland, Maine, and attended Hebron Academy. At Dartmouth he majored in English, served on the Interfraternity Council, and was a member of Theta Delta Chi, Dragon, Vigilantes, and the ski team. He spent two years in the Army, first at Ranger School, then teaching ski troops. Following a year spent in investment banking, he returned to Portland and worked at the H.M. Payson Co. where he became managing partner. He married Katherine “Dassy” Gould Hildreth and raised a family of six children. John was a dreamer, an optimist with a love for the outdoors, and an appreciation of nature gained by years of tromping through the woods or with a gun or fly rod with his parents, Dartmouth friends, or wife and children. In his 50s his active imagination took over. He started investing in unique pieces of property in Maine, and he and Dassy enjoyed roughing it in a remote point on Vinalhaven, on a dry bean farm near New Gloucester, and later along the bold coast beyond Cutler. Once his children were educated, he hung up his business suit and purchased a small cattle ranch on the edge of the Rockies in Montana. He and Dassy spent the next 30 years expanding the operation and then putting it into conservation. He is survived by Dassy and his six children.