William Colwell Pierce

William C. (Bill) Pierce was born on February 11, 1947, in Abilene, Texas, the first child of Leo Francis Pierce and Betsey Colwell Pierce (nee Betsey Barrows Colwell). His grandparents were Leo Franklin Pierce and Mattie May Pierce (nee Mattie May Hargrave) and Raymond Carpenter Colwell and Mattie Barrows Colwell (nee Mattie Holmes Barrows).  

A younger brother, Perry Hargrave Pierce, was born in April 1948. The family lived in Abilene, Austin (while Leo attended the University of Texas), and Waco, Texas, then moved to Carlsbad, New Mexico for a few years with Leo’s work. As a young child, Bill had an ear infection and surgery that severely damaged his hearing.  

In the mid-1950s, the family was transferred to the Colorado Springs, Colorado area, where Bill graduated from Widefield High School in 1965. He graduated from the Colorado Electronic Training College in Colorado Springs as an Electronic Technician, and later attended Southern Colorado State College in Pueblo with additional studies in Electronics.  

Bill worked for several years for Lockheed-Martin in the San Francisco Bay area as a technician, managing the orbits of several satellites. While there, he was an active bicycler, riding upwards of 1,000 miles every month, and managed over 10,000 miles of bike-riding in a year. One group trip took him from Portland, Oregon to Colorado Springs, a ride of over 1,300 miles.  

Bill relocated back to Colorado Springs where he worked and was involved in Ham Radio activities in the region and provided radio communications support for many community activities in Northern Colorado. He met his first wife, Meryl (Moe) Smeester, at a regional Ham Radio activity. They were married in the mid-1980s in Denver, Colorado. Bill and Moe moved to the Seattle, Washington area, where Bill worked as a Components Engineer for the Boeing Company. Moe, who was blind from birth, was a medical transcriptionist at a local hospital. In the late 1990s, they relocated again to Colorado Springs, Colorado. Moe passed away in July 2008 from complications due to Multiple Sclerosis. Her funeral was at her brother’s house in Fort Collins, Colorado.  

Bill was not very happy as a single person. He sent his brother the following in an e-mail in September 2008:  

“Last month while on Craig's List looking for work, another motorcycle link caught my eye. I thought it was another biker club. It turned out to be a biker-dating network. I think I decided not to go there the first time because it was too soon after Moe's death. About a week or so later I decided I was lonely enough for too long and even though I was still grieving for Moe, I decided to visit the site. I signed up for a free look, i.e. you get to set up a profile, and look at others with profiles of similar interests. Without paying you cannot send emails to anyone on the site. So I thought I would see if there was anyone in Colorado Springs I could find to ride with.  

“The way the site works one can send smiley faces to likely candidates (girls to boys and vice versa). So, I sent out a couple of smiley faces. Still had not paid any money so I could not send emails. One of my smiley faces answered back with an email. (It turned out she had paid for a three-month subscription.) We corresponded via the biker dating network for a while getting to know each other and exchanged regular emails so we could talk off the site.

“EJ is her name. During our conversations we talked about whether we would want to meet in person and decided we did. EJ had Tuesday through Thursday afternoon off.  She drove out here and we had breakfast together in Monument Tuesday morning. We hit off real good!  We found that we have a lot in common. She was a former Harley rider, a trained gourmet cook, computer literate, good looking, same age (approximately).  

“I won't say this is love at first sight, because it wasn't. It took about a month of emails and another visit before we decided we might be in love! That's about where we stand now. She will be moved out here and looking for a house for rent probably by mid-September, to be near her brother who has some…medical problems. In between dates she will be looking for work too…

“I thought it was about time I let you guys know what's going on way down south. She wants to meet you. And I think that would be a good idea too. So, what do you guys think?”  

The rest is history. Bill and EJ were married in October 2008, lived in Colorado Springs for a time, then relocated to the western slope of the Colorado Rockies, where EJ lived previously.

In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the Alzheimer's Association or an Alzheimer’s research foundation of your choosing.