Gordon C., Jr. Piercy

After 17 years of courageously battling metastatic prostate cancer, Gordon C. Piercy, Jr., aka “Don” or “Speeder Don” or “Marketing Don,” lost the war on Friday, May 25, 2012, at 67 years young.

Born Nov. 23, 1944 (or “1-1-2-3-4-4,” as he liked to say), in Takoma Park, Md., he lived most of his younger years in nearby Silver Spring. After graduating from Northwood High, he attended Syracuse University in upstate New York, graduating in 1966 with a BS in Marketing Management. He also crewed freshman year for Syracuse, following in the footsteps of his father who was a national crew champion for Columbia.

Don worked at Suburban Bank & Trust during college as a teller, and moved to full time employment with Chemical Bank in New York City upon graduation. While working, he continued his education at Pace University, N.Y., and in 1973 received his MBA in Marketing Management, where his thesis, “Marketing the Automated Banking Equipment Service” (ATMs), outlined his successful marketing of the first ever ATM. This brought him offers of employment from 17 different banks nationwide, from which he chose Seattle-First National Bank.

His career in Bank Marketing in the Seattle/Tacoma area spanned 24 years and five major banks, with a brief time from 1974-76 in San Francisco for VISA U.S.A., where he was instrumental in developing and marketing the first national debit card. During his time with Puget Sound Bank in Tacoma, he won many awards for his marketing strategy and advertising, and was most proud of his development of the Puget Sound Fund, through which each customer transaction at the bank’s ATMs generated a contribution from the bank to a fund dedicated to cleaning up Puget Sound.

Don also immersed himself in the boards of the Tacoma/Pierce County Chamber of Commerce, Seattle Advertising Federation, Seattle Aquarium Society, Pete Gross House, Marketing Communications Executives International (Seattle Chapter), American Marketing Association (Puget Sound Chapter), and the Bank Marketing Association (National Board Member).

After weathering another major bank buyout, Don and his family moved to Whidbey Island and he took the position of Senior Vice President and Marketing Director at InterWest Savings Bank. He happily plunged into involvement with our island community and very quickly became an integral part of it. Don was always quick to help those in need and support the community – from day-to-day acts such as rescuing stray cats and neglected horses and towing neighbors out of the snow, to his long-term volunteer roles, including with the Central Whidbey Lions, United Way of Island County, Island County Economic Development Board, Central Whidbey Chamber of Commerce, Sky Meadows Community Association ACC, Whidbey General Hospital Foundation, and Skagit Valley Community College, where he was just re-appointed to a second 5-year term as a trustee.

Don helped InterWest through growing pains, break into new markets, launch the “Ready, Set, Goals” literacy program with the SeaHawks, weather a change in management, and a name change to Pacific Northwest Bank, and when Wells Fargo successfully purchased the bank in 2004, Don chose to stay on Whidbey and retire.

Never idle, Don became certified to teach Marketing and Corporate Finance for Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and enjoyed passing along his passion for Marketing to his students. Don had a quick wit, loved bad jokes, great stories, puns, and trivia. He was a man of ideas and a problem solver: he always had a positive solution to the issues on his mind, and made sure to see those solutions through to their implementation.

Don was an absolute “people person” and would talk to – and make friends with – any type of person in any and every situation. He had a great zest for life, and was always on the go with a plan, a project, a to-do list of people to see, things to do. Don was diagnosed with cancer shortly after moving to Whidbey, and even after his diagnosis, every day of his life was full with family, work, volunteering, or his passion for railcars (“speeders”). He had covered thousands of miles in his speeders on the rails in the U.S. and Canada — including to the Arctic Circle! He had only recently completed installation of the final loop of his own railroad at his home. Don was known for his multitude of railroad tales.

Don was preceded in death by his sister, Tobey Lynne Milne. He is survived by his former wife, Susan Eby of Seattle and their two children, Elizabeth Anne Piercy (Erin Gilbert) of Seattle, and Kenneth Charles Piercy (Jennah Kriebel) of

Geneva, Switzerland, and their child (his only grandchild), Eleanor Marguerite Kriebel-Piercy; and by his wife of 27 years, Roberta Margaret Walton Piercy of Coupeville, and their two children Virginia Walton Piercy and Zachary Taylor Walton Piercy.

If you are inspired by Don’s commitment to our community or his courageous battle with cancer, and wish to make a remembrance on his behalf, please consider the following organizations: Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, Prostate Cancer Research/Dr. Celestia Higano; Whidbey General Hospital Foundation, MAC Clinic/EMS/Home Health & Hospice Svcs; Central Whidbey Lions; and Skagit Valley Community College Foundation.

We would love to receive and share any anecdotes, stories or pictures you may have of Don – just email them to 892fleagin@tumblr.com and they will post to 1000storiesofgordoncpiercy.com, where everyone can enjoy them.

Don loved and was loved by his family, friends, and his animals, and was a dedicated and supporting father and husband. He will be dearly missed by all of those who were fortunate enough to know him. We invite Don’s family and friends, colleagues and students, railroad buddies, Lions and neighbors to help us remember his life at services Saturday, June 9, at 1 p.m. at the Coupeville United Methodist Church. A celebration will follow at the Piercy home. Private interment will be made by his family at Sunnyside Cemetery in Coupeville.