John A. Pierce *59

John Pierce, a prominent Dallas architect, died at home Feb. 14, 2016, at the age of 84.

Pierce graduated from Rice University in 1953. After active service in the Navy during the Korean War, he enrolled at Princeton and earned an MFA degree in architecture in 1959.

His entrepreneurial spirit led him to found the architectural firm Pierce, Lacey & Associates. It later merged with his brother George’s firm under the name Pierce Goodwin Alexander, and grew to be the second largest architectural firm in Texas.

Pierce was elected an American Institute of Architecture fellow in 1988, the AIA’s highest award. His firms have received more than 100 awards for excellence in design, including the terminal buildings at Houston’s Intercontinental Airport and Southern Methodist University’s Lee Student Center. Active in Dallas civic affairs, Pierce was a member of the Dallas-Ft. Worth expansion committee and the greater Dallas Chamber of Commerce aviation committee, among other activities.

He is survived by his wife, Nancy Frankel Pierce, whom he married in 1994; four children; eight grandchildren; and six step-grandchildren. Pierce’s first wife, Donna Conley Pierce, was the mother of his four children.

Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.