Samuel B. Pierson ’65

Sam Pierson died Oct. 9, 2010, from lung cancer.  

One of our large and unruly Gilman School contingent, he majored in English, ate at Cap and Gown, and wrestled and played lacrosse at the varsity level, serving as captain of both teams. He was class secretary soon after graduation and served in the Army in Germany from 1967 to 1969, reaching the rank of sergeant and receiving an Army Commendation Medal.  

In 1973, Sam received a master’s degree from Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., teaching continuingly thereafter at Loomis Chafee School in Windsor, Conn. In 1989-90 he was a visiting scholar at Cambridge University. During this period he was the high scorer on the Connecticut Valley Lacrosse Club, adviser for Loomis Chafee’s prize-winning yearbook and its Coin Club, coach of the wrestling and lacrosse teams, and an official at local sports events.  

In 1984 he won a summer grant from the National Foundation for the Humanities to study satire, his favorite genre (teaching Shakespeare, Gulliver’s Travels, and Catch 22 in the same class), and in 1988 won a national outstanding teacher award.

He is survived by his sons, Stephen and Benjamin, and their mother and his ex-wife, Kathy, to whom the class extends its sympathy for the loss of this fine, witty, and energetic classmate.