C. Allen Pierce 1937-2025

Born Dec. 13, 1937, in Saginaw, Michigan, Allen was an Eagle Scout and a graduate of Saginaw High School in 1955. Allen enlisted in the U.S. Navy and was proud of his years in the Submarine Service, aboard the USS Capitaine, throughout his life. He went on to earn an Associate Degree in Psychology from Bay City Junior College (now Delta College) while he was a police officer in his hometown of Saginaw. It was while walking the beat as a patrolman he met his future wife, Eugenia, in Saginaw.

Allen also was an active member of the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) and an avid racer in those years. He spent the bulk of his spare time racing and constantly working on his beloved MGs.

Allen left the police force to attend Michigan State University, where he earned both a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in Police Administration and Public Safety. The years at MSU were instrumental in his decision to embark on a career in academia. His first teaching job was at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 1969, where the family lived and grew. He then taught at East Tennessee State University for an academic year, followed by time as a grant administrator in Portland, Oregon, and two years at Bemidji State University in Minnesota, before finally settling in Youngstown, Ohio, for a position with Youngstown State University’s Department of Criminal Justice in the fall of 1976.

While teaching full time at YSU, Allen completed his PhD in Sociology with an emphasis in Criminology and Criminal Justice in 1980 from Kent State University. After defending his dissertation on the values and attitudes among students in selected police higher education programs and earning his doctorate, he was rewarded with tenure with the Penguins. Allen was a well-known professor in his time at YSU, especially with the law enforcement community, and it seemed the majority of police officers in Youngstown and the surrounding communities had Dr. Pierce for classes at some point. He retired from YSU in the summer of 2011 after 42 years as a professor, 35 of those at YSU. Allen continued to teach for another decade after retirement as a professor emeritus at the university.

Athletics were an important part of Allen’s life, starting with his time playing hockey and speedskating on the frozen ponds of Michigan, and as a gymnast and competitive swimmer in his youth. He could be found, like clockwork, at the university’s natatorium every weekday between classes even after his retirement, where he would regularly lap much younger and leaner swimmers in parallel lanes. Allen also was an avid cyclist and was very active along with his wife in Youngstown’s cycling community, to include decades of work with the Out-Spokin’ Wheelmen, where he was a past president of the organization and the chair of the League of American Bicyclists (then the League of American Wheelman) National Rally in 1990. Allen also served as the faculty adviser to both the YSU Bicycle Club and two different iterations of competitive cycling teams at the university.

Allen is survived by his wife of 60 years, Eugenia E. Belica Pierce, whom he married March 6, 1965; his children, C. Dean Pierce of Youngstown, E. Adine Pierce Hickey of O’Fallon, Missouri, and Dwight A. Pierce (Jessica N. Pierce) of Glen Allen, Virginia; and brother-in-law, Peter Belica. Allen also is survived by six grandchildren, Paige L. Pierce Henderson, Courtney P. Rogers, Jared E. Hickey, Rhiana B. Hickey, Destiny N. Norton and M. Isabella Pierce; and six great-grandchildren.

Allen was preceded in death by his parents, Robert A. and Zana M. Pierce; parents-in-law, Stanley and Eugenia Belica; brother and sister-in-law, R. Dean and Lorraine M. Dombrowski Pierce; sister-in-law, Helen T. Danbury; and brother-in-law, George Belica.

A memorial service will be 10 a.m. Thursday, July 24, 2025, at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Youngstown, on Elm Street (across from Wick Park), with a social event to follow the same day.

For anyone not able to join in person, the service will be available at https://zoom.us/j/324513381.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial donations to the First Unitarian Universalist Church, WYSU-FM, The Tony Leonardi Legacy Scholarship at Youngstown State University or the Out Spokin’ Wheelmen bicycle club.

Memorial donations can also be made to Hospice Foundation of America online or by mail. Visit https://hospicefoundation.org/donate to donate online or print a donation form and mail with a check payable to HFA at: Hospice Foundation of America, 1707 L St. NW, Suite 220, Washington, DC 20036

(special notice)