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IN LOVING MEMORY OF

Roland

Roland Pierson Profile Photo

Pierson

April 17, 1938 – April 15, 2025

Obituary

Roland (Ron) Luther Pierson peacefully passed away at Vassar Brothers Hospital, Poughkeepsie, NY, on April 15, 2025, after a series of long illnesses. Immediate family members who predeceased him are his grandparents, Roland Leon Pierson and Edith Robertson Pierson; parents, Jeanne Luther Pierson and Robert Leon Pierson; and his brother-in-law, Gary Gardner. Surviving immediate family members are his wife, June Spencer Pierson, at home (79 Flint Road, Cottage 23, Millbrook , NY 12545); sisters, Gina Gardner and Kathryn Gaianguest; children, Sheryl Pierson, Randall Pierson, Laura Pierson-Speed, and son-in-law, David Speed, and grandchildren, Laurel Speed and Forest Speed. Ron was born on April 17, 1938, in Chicago, IL. The family lived in Orleans, MI, where Ron grew up and learned farming practices by working on family apple farms and a breeding farm of Polled Hereford cattle. His formal education began in an unusual way. Since school transportation to Ionia was not available, Ron attended kindergarten in Palo, MI. The following year, arrangements were made for him to attend Emerson Elementary School in Ionia. However, the Ionia school system would not accept the transfer of his kindergarten year at Palo, so he was required to repeat his kindergarten year. Through the years, Ron often enjoyed telling the story that he was the only person he ever knew who had to go through kindergarten twice! While in elementary school in Ionia , Ron was active in 4-H and took private piano lessons. He not only became an excellent musician but also discovered and developed his amazing natural talent and ability to play music by ear. In high school, he was very involved with activities of the Future Farmers of America, played baritone horn in the high school band and orchestra, and performed in both FFA and school choruses. Ron enrolled at Michigan State University in the fall of 1956 with a major in Electrical Engineering. In addition to challenging classes and part-time work, during his first year at MSU, he qualified to play the tuba in the MSU marching band, one of his fondest memories of his college years. In 1957, Ron married his high school sweetheart, Frances Marie Yeomans. In their 18 years of marriage, they had three children together, Sheryl Jeanne, Randall Lee and Laura Lynn. After graduating from college, the family relocated to Massachusetts where Ron was employed by Raytheon as a semiconductor test engineer to help develop a testing process for low-leakage diodes. When Raytheon decided to divest this technology in 1963, they offered to arrange a job interview with IBM for Ron. He accepted a job offer from IBM and moved to Wappingers Falls, NY, to begin his career in test engineering. Ron worked at IBM for over 30 years, with approximately 80% of his time in management of technical projects. His primary technical contributions were in semiconductor testing and FRU testing after semiconductor attachment. He was a member of an advanced test team, who frequently traveled to work with teams in Japan and France. Their work resulted in significant, unique, state-of-the-art developments in testing and reliability stressing that were totally new to the industry. Ron's technical and project management successes resulted in a patent, the publication of several articles and his production of a video. His work was recognized by two separate Corporate Technical Achievement Awards, which were, at that time, the highest honor for technical achievement in IBM. He was very proud of his work accomplishments and considered himself to be a part of the IBM family for the rest of his life. At various times through the decades, he enjoyed leisure activities such as riding his motorcycle, attending numerous dirt bike competitions to watch his son, Randy, race, and following NASCAR racing on television. He was particularly passionate about two additional activities, flying and singing. Ron earned his license as a Private Pilot in 1959 and became a Flight Instructor, with Commercial and Instrument ratings, for single engine land and sea aircraft. He worked as a part-time flight instructor at Sky Acres Airport and Dutchess County Airport in the 60's and early 70's and continued to enjoy flying for many years. His second passion was singing. He was an active member of the Poughkeepsie New Yorkers men's chorus, singing tenor in four-part, acapella harmony in the "barbershop" style. He also served as stage manager for chorus performances for many years. His greatest joy was performing and competing as a part of several quartets, most notably, the Footlighters Quartet. A high point of his 40 plus years of singing was when the quartet performed in the Sharon Playhouse production of "The Music Man". The performance won high acclaim and, as a result, the Footlighters were asked to perform in several other productions of the musical throughout the region. Ron's first marriage ended in 1975. He married June Spencer Roush on February 18, 1978, and they celebrated their 47th wedding anniversary in February of this year. With June, Ron expanded his interests in leisure travel within the United States and to international destinations in Europe, Africa, Central and South America, the South Pacific and the Caribbean. For those who may wish to make a Memorial donation in remembrance of Ron, please consider the Dutchess County SPCA, 636 Violet Avenue, Hyde Park, NY 12538 or the James F. Hall Founding President's Scholarship, c/o The DCC Foundation, Dutchess Community College, 53 Pendell Road, Poughkeepsie, NY 12601. A Celebration of Life for family and friends will be scheduled for a future date.
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