Thomas Grimes Pierce

He was born on June 28, 1939 in Jasper, Alabama to Edgar and Wyola Pierce. He was the youngest of Ed’s four children; his sisters, Jeane and Ann, were already 10 and 8 respectively when he arrived. His half-brother, Edgar Hughleigh Pierce, Jr. was 13. Edgar, Sr. was a newspaper editor and publisher, and Wyola was a homemaker.

Tom graduated from Walker County High School in 1957 and often remarked on the excellent education he received there. He went on to earn a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Alabama, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa, despite frequently sneaking in to watch Crimson Tide football practices. He continued his education at the Georgia Institute of Technology where he labored under the infamous Steamboat Fulton and other demanding professors. He completed his master’s thesis on thermodynamics at Tech in 1962 and was awarded his Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering.

In the single year he needed to complete his Masters, he happened to run into fellow Jasper native Belle Cameron Russell at a stoplight in Atlanta, who was visiting Atlanta as a University of Georgia student. The Russells and Pierces were longtime family friends in Jasper, and this was not their first meeting, but it sparked a romance, and Tom and Belle Cameron were married at the Country Club in Jasper in September of 1962, almost immediately after Tom graduated from Tech.

They honeymooned at the Grand Hotel Point Clear on Mobile Bay before starting their life together in Huntsville, Alabama, where Tom put his master’s degree to work as an engineer with Boeing. This was only a few weeks after John F. Kennedy had delivered his famous “We choose to go to the Moon” speech at Rice University, and Tom was exhilarated to be working on the C5A thruster cones for the Saturn V rocket, which later transported several Apollo missions to the Moon and to this day remains the most powerful rocket ever built.

In 1963, Tom moved with Belle Cameron to Hanau, Germany to fulfill his two-year commitment as an ROTC student. Tom held the rank of lieutenant as a combat engineer in the U.S. Army’s third armored division. This was at the height of the Cold War and just after the construction of the Berlin Wall. Among his many responsibilities was the satisfying job of creating plans to blow up bridges while on maneuvers with the third armored across various regions of western Germany.

He was also responsible for the logistics and road preparation for President Kennedy’s troop inspection during his “Ich bin ein Berliner” tour of Germany. Tom had spent weeks on the project, and everything was down to the last minute. Still covered in mud, he joined his unit at the reception site. As Kennedy exited his vehicle, Tom locked eyes with the President and saw him scan down, undoubtedly noting the condition of his uniform.

He and Belle Cameron made the most of military conscription and spent his leave exploring Europe in his new Porsche 911, which he was proud to have acquired with great economic efficiency, using American dollars, directly from the Porsche factory in Stuttgart, Germany.

After two years of serving his country abroad, the couple returned to the U.S. and Tom began what would be a 32-year career with Exxon (then known as Standard Oil). His first job with the company was in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, working as an engineer. His daughter, Irene, was born in 1965, and first son, Tom, in 1966.

In 1969, Tom was promoted to a marketing role and transferred to Exxon headquarters in New York City. When Exxon relocated headquarters to Houston, Texas, the young family of four moved to Texas with many other Exxon families. It was there that the Pierces welcomed their second son, Russell, in 1972.

In 1977, Tom was promoted to run a production facility in suburban Chicago. Three years later, Tom was again promoted in 1980 to lead Exxon Chemical’s Atlanta office and the family was transferred a final time to Atlanta where he remained until his retirement in 1997.

Tom picked up an appreciation for wine during his years in Germany and he began collecting soon after returning to the States. Wine figured prominently at family events. He will be mourned by numerous boutique wineries in California, where he was a proud mailing list member and devout purchaser up and down the West coast.

He enjoyed the outdoors, camping with family and friends across south Texas during his Houston years. He enjoyed fishing the Warrior River in Jasper as a child, the Gulf of Mexico as an adult (ask Tom Jr. or his nephew, Ted, about the shark story), and Lake Osage in North Carolina as a retiree.

He downhill skied, played lots of tennis and ran the Peachtree Road Race every year from 1981 to 2010. He and Belle Cameron took wonderful trips during retirement, cruising the Adriatic, touring Ireland, and visiting Prague, Venice, Hawaii, Greece, Vancouver and Newfoundland, among others.

Tom followed the Atlanta Braves, the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, and most of all, the University of Alabama Crimson Tide football team [ROLL TIDE!]. The last football game he watched was the SEC Championship on December 2, 2023, when the #8-ranked Tide beat the #1-ranked University of Georgia Bulldogs, finally ending UGA’s 29-game win streak and securing a berth in the 2023 College Football Playoff.

Tom is survived by Belle Cameron, his wife of 61 years; daughter, Irene Pierce Hatchett (Stephen); sons, Thomas Grimes Pierce, Jr. (Michelle), Russell Cameron Pierce (Kiersten); and 6 grandchildren, all of whom reside in Atlanta.

In lieu of flowers, please make a contribution to the charity of your choice. Tom’s memorial service will be held Saturday, December 16, 2023 at 2:00 PM at H.M. Patterson and Son, Arlington Chapel, 173 Allen Rd., Sandy Springs, GA 30328.