LEONARD A. PIERCE

FALMOUTH FORESIDE Leonard A. Pierce, 88, of 191 Foreside Road, died peacefully Wednesday, May 11, 2005, at Falmouth By-The-Sea with his family at his side. He was born Oct. 13, 1916, in Houlton, a son of Leonard Augustus Pierce Sr. and Anna Putnam Pierce. The family moved to 392 Spring St., in Portland in 1919, which has been the family home ever since. Leonard attended Portland schools, and graduated from Deering High School in 1934. He graduated from Bowdoin College in 1938 with a degree in government. While at Bowdoin, he was a member of the diving team and also a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. Upon graduation he owned and operated a potato farm in Houlton, where he also raised horses, dairy cows and beef cattle. He enlisted in the U.S. Army and graduated from Officer’s Candidate School at Fort Benning, Ga., and was then stationed at Fort Meade, Md. In 1943, in Baltimore, he married Helen B. Wormwood of Cumberland Foreside. Mr. Pierce was then sent overseas as a Captain in the 185th Regiment of the 3rd Division of General George Patton’s Third Army. He landed in England and as an infantry man, spent 30 days in France, two years in Germany and two weeks in Belgium. He was in charge of a jeep battalion, which was a part of the Battle of the Bulge. Returning to the United States, he was hired by the St. Regis Paper Co., and for the next eight years worked for the company at their mills in Bucksport and Howland, where he was the mill manager. He then was in charge of their plant in Kalamazoo, Mich. In 1954, he was made vice-president of manufacturing for Penobscot Chemical Fibre Company in New York City and Boston. In 1960, Mr. Pierce became the President of the Brown Paper Company (now part of Fraser Paper Co.). Prior to that he had been Brown Company’s vice- president in charge of pulp and paper manufacturing. He served there for 10 years. In 1970, he then became the vice- president in charge of land sales for James W. Sewall Company in Old Town, where he appraised timberlands for paper companies, partnerships and private individuals. He had accumulated knowledge and experience of timberlands in the Northeast from his many years in the paper making industry. Mr. Pierce also consulted for such companies as Chadbourne Lumber Mills in Bethel, and Almond H. Fogg Co., in Houlton. As his career forced several family moves, Leonard and Helen lived in Bucksport, Enfield, Kalamazoo, Mich., Bedford Village, N.Y., Wayland, Mass., Bethel and Newburg, before retirement brought them back to the Portland area. He was a member of the Penobscot Associates Investment Group of Bangor, a member of the Board of Directors of Key Bank of Bangor and Dingley Press of Lisbon. Mr. Pierce was also a member of the Maine Harness Horseman’s Association and the New England Horse Show Association. Throughout his entire life, Mr. Pierce was extremely active and interested in horses. He even owned horses as a young boy. Upon his return from overseas, he bought horse Miss Shola “Marmie”, who went on to become Reserve Champion in 1956 and New England Open Jumper Champion in 1957. During his years in the paper industry he had several horses, all show jumpers and hunters. They competed throughout the Northeast and Canada. Later on, he was joined by his daughter and they showed and competed together, at such favorites as the Skowhegan Fair, Topsham Fair, Cumberland Fair, Bangor Fair and Scarborough Downs. Leonard and his daughter were exceptionally close. Mr. Pierce later built a large horse farm in Newburgh, where he bred and raised jumping horses. He then gravitated to raising standard breds who were trained and raced throughout the state. He took great effort in the horse’s care and their development. He also was interested in dairy and beef cattle, draft horses and maintained hundreds of acres of productive wood lots. He immensely enjoyed his Pierce family and their gatherings at Nickerson Lake in Houlton, and Portland. He was very involved in the life of his daughter, son-in-law and granddaughters. Often he would travel to attend their Falmouth High School plays and productions, field hockey games, and he never missed a Catherine McAuley basketball game. Mr. Pierce was predeceased by his wife, who died in 2000. As his health declined, his daughter Susan; her husband, John; and their four daughters were grateful that he was near by. Surviving is a daughter and son-in-law, Susan and John Marshall Jr. of Falmouth Foreside; three sisters, Jane Pierce Kittredge of Falmouth by-the- Sea, Falmouth Foreside, Alice Mary Pierce and Lucia Pierce Smith and her husband, William, all of Portland; four granddaughters, Abigail Diaz-Pedrossa and her husband, Aristides, of New York City, Margaret Pierce Marshall of Boston, Anna Madigan Marshall of Washington, D.C., and Sarah Honan Marshall of Boston, Mass.; and many nieces and nephews. A reception for family and friends will be held 4-6 p.m. Sunday, at the Portland Country Club. Burial will take place at a later date at Evergreen Cemetery, Houlton. Arrangements by Conroy-Tully Crawford Funeral Home, 172 State St., Portland.