Reginald Franklin Pierce III

FAVORITE MEMORIES OF WILLIAMS

Fred Copeland, Whit Stoddard, Renzie Lamb, Fred Rudolph, John Hyde, Ralph Townsend, Nancy McIntire, Robert Scott, Bob Odell, and Charles Fuqua. Memorable Moments: Placed on academic probation June 1969; saved by Dean Kolster, who let me play varsity football if I never got less than a C- in any course (it worked . . . I graduated!). Road trips with Jack Curtin to N.H. Going neck and neck with Steve Kirkland in the 100-yard butterfly race for two years at the college’s intramural swimming event). Beating Amherst on Cole Field in 1971 to win the Little 3. Voted class president at graduation!

WILLIAMS CLUBS / ACTIVITIES

Williams Outing Club, Sailing Club, freshman and varsity football, freshman lacrosse, Physical Education Department’s ski instruction Director, president of Ebenezer Fitch House, and president of graduating (1972) Class.

CURRENT INTERESTS, PASSIONS, AND ORGANIZATIONS

Interests: Enjoy large yacht, competitive sailboat racing. Member of the New York Yacht Club (NYC and Newport, R.I., clubhouses). For past 22+ years I have raced with Jack Curtin on his 12-meter Intrepid (US 22) in Cowes,, NYC, Marblehead, Martha’s Vineyard, and Newport.

Passions: Watching our three children grow & succeed in choosing careers, spouses, having children & sharing large family reunions with both sides of our family.

Organizations: For over 40 years, we have supported JDRF, dog rescue centers & helping with numerous local charity events, benefiting those in need.

LIFE SINCE GRADUATION

Knowing that I was a true 10% candidate, I never thought I would be accepted at Williams and was planning to go to Denison in Ohio. My two Sage B roommates (Garfield and Schmitz) turned out to be a great fit. We all adapted to entry life and participated in numerous frosh quad events, such as water balloon fights, entry socials, some serious studying, and wild events like the Winter Carnival bike race on the iced-up quad circle drive.

It was the first few months of sophomore year when the purpose of a college education started to really sink in. Tougher courses, super faculty, importance of spending time in the library, and beginning to choose a major field of study. Top courses in political science and history taught by smart and approachable profs (Burns, Greene, Mansfield, Dalzell, Labaree, Rudolph) captured my interest.

While the above professors led me to Am. Civ., the total Williams academic experience helped most of us become what we are today—and were by graduation: well-rounded, confident, engaging young men and women. Some of the more interesting courses for me were art history (Stoddard & Faison), music appreciation (Shainman & Roberts), and some outreach subjects (Satterthwaite’s environmental studies, Fuqua’s classics, and geology with McFarland).

In the fall of 1970, I took over work on the petition initiated by Berkshire House’s Blum ’71 and Ferraro ’71 to change the name to “Fitch House.” The trustees of the college had already rejected the idea, preferring to hold on to the name for a new dorm, should donors want to use it. Members of Berkshire House had already deployed a salvo, producing a black T-shirt featuring our “Sons of Fitch” battle cry, and at last we met with President Sawyer. My thesis sponsor, Fred Rudolph, backed us up. The rest is history, as the trustees approved the house name change in January 1971. A month later, I was elected as the first president of Ebenezer Fitch House, which also spurred on my thesis project (under Prof. Rudolph) that fall.

Following graduation from Williams, I served as an officer in the navy for four years, was a crew member of two America’s Cup challenges in the ’70s, worked in the advertising business in the ’80s and the insurance business in the ’90s. After 9/11, my career gelled into a blend of marketing and commercial insurance, which evolved smoothly into my own firm (Pierce Branding) in 2015, which I still run today. Highlight events: Racing on Curtin’s 12-meter Intrepid at the 2001 Sesquicentennial America’s Cup Regatta in Cowes and the 2019 12-meter World Championship Regatta in Newport.

With Covid inching into year two, I elected to redirect some of my time to local endeavors. I signed on to help a local friend run for mayor of the Borough of West Chester, Pa. My colleague left the D party and became an Independent candidate to challenge the local D team to a run for their money. The Rs could not find a candidate, so a Libertarian jumped in about three months before E-Day. Despite a brilliant marketing initiative, we came in second. Learned a lot with over 100 hours of pro bono time invested.

Over the past two years, KayC and I (and our Bernese mountain dog, Tank, named after David Shawn ‘72) have spent a lot of quality time together, which we deemed was good for us both. Tons of online TV series (one had 14 seasons). Additionally, daily walks of at least a mile or two. We have also managed to see our children and spouses quite frequently, as the grandkids are all less than 45 minutes away. Oldest, Schuyler, was just promoted to a department head in HR at Vanguard. Middle sibling, Reggie (RFP4), founded IPlasso, a corporate brand identity protection tech firm in Philadelphia (celebrating 10 years in 2022). Youngest son, Travis, is also working for Vanguard, remotely this past year, in Portland, Me. He is on the FinTech side of Vanguard and is living with a wonderful lady friend (who KayC and I really like).