Anne Bingham Pierson MD

The eldest of 49 first cousins whose Connecticut roots extend almost 400 years, she felt a deep responsibility to honor her family’s legacy and contribute meaningfully to the world around her.

From her earliest years, Anne stood out for her ferocious independence and strong commitment to both family and society. As a young child living in mainland China during the 1930s, she witnessed suffering caused by lack of access to medical care and resolved to do something about it. Inspired by two uncles who were doctors, she took pre-med courses at Vassar College while pursuing a self-defined major in American Studies.

At medical school in the 1950s, when women represented only a small fraction of medical students, Anne fell in love with and married her classmate Richard “Dick” Pierson. After graduation the couple encountered the era’s rigid professional expectations: hospitals were reluctant to employ two married physicians, particularly when one was a woman determined to balance motherhood with a medical career. Instead, following an internship at Lenox Hill Hospital, Anne pursued opportunities that allowed her to practice medicine outside traditional hospital settings while raising her family and serving her community.

For the next two decades Anne specialized in women’s health. She worked for Planned Parenthood in several capacities, including a year as medical director of their Memphis, TN office from 1974-1975, shortly after the passage of Roe v. Wade. Between 1966 and 1971 she contributed columns to Bride’s Magazine under the heading “A Woman Doctor Answers Your Intimate Questions,” addressing subjects often considered taboo at the time. Her willingness to discuss women’s health candidly and compassionately reflected her belief that knowledge and access to care were essential to personal well-being.

After earning a Master of Public Health degree in 1972, Anne devoted 34 years to preventive and occupational medicine, serving as an in-house physician at New York Bell Telephone in Manhattan, and then for 22 years at Sonalysts in Waterford, Connecticut. Her commitment to preventive medicine extended beyond her professional responsibilities. Members of her church congregation experienced this commitment firsthand when she established an informal “Ask the Doctor” table after Sunday services, offering personal guidance and answering health questions.

Alongside her medical career, Anne cultivated a lifelong passion for art. Creativity was woven into her family life: her father painted and drew, her mother taught her needlework, and paintings filled the walls of her homes. Anne carried sketchbooks or watercolor supplies wherever she traveled, and her love of painting remained with her until the final days of her life.

After moving to Old Lyme, CT in 1978, Anne studied at Lyme Academy of Art, and she exhibited her work in group and solo exhibitions for the next 40 years. Painting helped her find calm in her otherwise list-packed days. She was a lifetime elected member of the Lyme Art Association, where she served as president from 1999-2001, and an elected member in art societies in Clinton, Guilford, East Lyme, Essex, Madison and Mystic, as well as with the Connecticut Watercolor Society and the Connecticut Plein Air Painters Society.

Anne said she preferred watercolor for its spontaneity and flow of color, and she appreciated the subtlety of shading and transparent clarity that it can achieve. She became known for her landscapes of nature and flowering gardens. Much of her work can be seen at her website, https://annebpiersonpaintings.com/

Anne was extremely proud of her heritage as a member of both the Griswold and Bingham families, many of whom had been prominent in law, politics and business, and she embraced the responsibility of giving back. (For years she included in her artist’s resume the fact that her grandfather Hiram Bingham III was the first Westerner widely credited with discovering Machu Picchu.) In two different places in her home she displayed the same Winston Churchill quote: “We make a living by what we do, but we make a life by what we give.” For Anne, this meant giving time and offering leadership, as well as financial support, to a host of organizations ranging from the Junior League (in her early years) to Vassar College, Planned Parenthood and the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America.

Her dedication to preserving history and protecting the natural environment was equally strong. Working with Griswold family neighbors, she helped prepare the successful nomination of the Griswold Point National Historic District, a rare 210-acre historic landscape at the mouth of the Connecticut River. She also donated 91 acres of inherited land in East Haddam, Connecticut, to The Nature Conservancy, ensuring its preservation for future generations.

Anne found enormous pleasure in the simple abundance of nature. Each year she harvested quince, grapes, beach plums, and pears from around her home, transforming them into an astonishing assortment of jams and jellies—often more than 700 jars annually. These homemade gifts became one of her signature expressions of affection and gratitude. She gave them to everyone she appreciated, from her neighbors and grandchildren to the local postal workers, hardware store clerk and hair stylist.

In her later years, Anne enjoyed social activities in New London at the Thames Club, lunches with her friends the JULIETs – “Joyfully Unattached Ladies Intermittently Eating Together” - and policy discussions with the American Association of University Women and the Southeastern Connecticut World Affairs Council. She sang in Capella Cantorum and community and church choirs, which gave her joy and kept her connected with friends, and she took great pride in playing the accordion in the annual Griswold family July 4th parade.

Even as she grew older, Anne displayed a sense of invulnerability to age and infirmity. From the 1980s to 2022 she competed in numerous running races, accumulating an impressive collection of trophies. She also took great pride in her appearance. During the 1960s, strangers sometimes stopped her in the market to ask whether she was Jacqueline Kennedy’s sister. Even in later years, she delighted in compliments about her youthful appearance. She eagerly collected books about the world’s “blue zones” and the secrets of longevity, setting herself the ambitious goal of living to 120.

This sense of self-reliance and invulnerability made it very hard for her to ask for help, and even harder to accept it when offered. It was only in the last months of her life, with the assistance of some very special companions (“Team Anne”), that she learned to allow herself the grace to accept their support, which was a gift to those around her.

Anne Bingham was born in New York City on June 9, 1929, the eldest child of Woodbridge Bingham (1901-1986) and Ursula Wolcott Griswold (1908-1998). She grew up primarily in Berkeley, California, where her father taught East Asian history at the University of California Berkeley and her mother volunteered for the YWCA and other social service and faith organizations. The family also lived for over two years in Beijing, China and Kyoto, Japan (1934-1937) while her father conducted doctoral research using materials in the Chinese Emperor’s royal library.

Anne graduated from the Katherine Branson School (1947), Vassar College (1951), Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons (1955) and Columbia School of Public Health (1972). She was admitted to the American College of Preventative Medicine in 1982, and later received an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Mitchell College in New London, CT.

Anne was married three times: to Richard N. Pierson, Jr. from 1954-1973, to Richard T. Wright from 1978-1997, and to Paul H. Altrocchi from 1998-2001. All three marriages ended in divorce. From 2002–2019 she deeply cherished her friendships with two physicians, Lee Sabath in Minneapolis, MN, and Ted VanItallie in Old Lyme, CT. Both died in 2019.

Anne is survived by her sisters, Clare Cochran and Marian Bingham; her four children, Richard N. Pierson III (“Robin”), Olivia Jacobs, Alexandra Griffin and Cordelia Pierson; and her three stepchildren, Benjamin Wright, Christian Wright, and Elizabeth Wempe. She also leaves eight grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Her sister Evelyn Goodman predeceased her.

Anne’s family extends its deepest gratitude to the extraordinary individuals who helped her experience comfort, dignity, companionship, and joy during the final chapter of her life. They are especially grateful to Marianne Ward, RN, and Erica Vaill, whose devoted care and companionship enriched Anne’s last two years; the end-of-life doulas who helped guide her transition; and the compassionate teams at Seniors Helping Seniors, Academy Point at Mystic, and Hartford HealthCare Home Hospice.

Anne will be laid to rest in a private burial service at the Griswold family cemetery in Old Lyme. A public memorial celebration of her life is planned for spring 2027. In lieu of flowers, donations in her memory are welcome to Planned Parenthood of America, WMNR Radio, the Lyme Art Association or the American Civil Liberties Union.

About a week before she died, Anne took up her paintbrush for the first time in several years. Her art class had been assigned to paint Winston Churchill, who was himself an amateur landscape painter and had been an inspiration to her. True to her independent spirit, she decided not to paint a portrait of Churchill, but instead painted three colorful butterflies, playful and light.