Donald Lloyd Pierce, age 84, died Friday, Sept. 13, 2019 in Florida. He was born April 5, 1935 in Athens, the son of the late Lloyd and Esther Pierce and his grandparents, the late Faye and Lucy Pierce.

Don graduated Athens High School in 1953. He graduated from Ohio University, college of education, in 1957 before going to work at Logan High School. Later in his career he obtained a Masters in Guidance and Counseling.

He and his wife, Patricia Cain Pierce, moved to Columbus where both of them began teaching in the Columbus Public Schools and started a family. The family began with the birth of two sons, Peter and Michael, who were followed by a daughter Ann. Don, always a staunch union man, progressive Democrat, active Unitarian, and Cleveland Indians fan, was elected president of the Columbus Education Association in 1971 and vice-president of the Ohio Education Association a few years later. He also served as director of the Metropolitan Columbus Schools Committee, which worked to facilitate the peaceful integration of Columbus Schools. In the late 1970s, he returned to the classroom, first at Mohawk Middle School and then at Eastmoor High School. Don retired from the Columbus Public Schools in 1995. After retirement Pierce lived in Columbus before moving to Pinellas Park, Florida, where he worked on his tennis game, read books, played bridge, got annoyed if someone switched the channel from MSNBC (except to watch Jeopardy), and followed politics with a passion.

Don is survived by his wife of sixty years, Patricia; his three children, Peter, Michael, and Ann; son-in-law Renato Skerlj; daughter-in-law Tricia Starks; grandchildren Lilly Skerlj, Jack Skerlj, Ben Pierce, Finn Skerlj, and Sam Pierce; special family friends, Aliza Cook, Douglas Spaeth-Cook, Nicholas Cook-Spaeth, Aliza Metcalf, and Amira Metcalf; brother-in-law Jack McDonald; sisters-in-law Shirley McDonald and Norma Cain; and a large extended family.

Services will be private. In lieu of flowers or donations, the family asks that you hug someone close to you while remembering Don's robust laugh.  Please share a memory, a note of condolence or sign the online register book at www.jagersfuneralhome.com.