Stan Pierson Obituary

Stan Pierson

1925 - 2013

Stanley Arthur Pierson of Eugene passed away at his home on January 12, 2013, at the age of 88. He was a gentle, witty, generous man, dedicated to a life of intellectual exploration and scholarship. Already he is deeply missed.

Stan was born on New Year's Day in 1925, in the Torrance, California home of his parents, Daniel and Pearl Pierson. He grew up in a working class family in Torrance, the middle of three sons. Stan lettered in three varsity sports while at Torrance High School: Baseball, Track, and Basketball. He was editor of the school newspaper and chair of the yearbook as a senior. In 1943, Stan enrolled at the University of Oregon. He hoped to become a sportswriter.

Called later that year to military service in World War II, he was sent to the Colorado School of Mines, where he completed a course of study in basic engineering. When the Army decided that what it really needed was infantrymen, he became a machine gunner and was sent to Europe as part of the 66th "Black Panther" Division. He served in France in 1944-45 and then, after the war, in Austria.

Stan returned to the U of O in 1947. Thanks to some inspiring teachers and his desire to understand what had led to the enormous destruction he had witnessed in Europe, he became a history major. As a junior, he received the U of O's award for outstanding leadership, and in 1950 he graduated Phi Beta Kappa. During the summers, he hitchhiked across the country multiple times to take various academic programs. He was very pleased that he made it all the way on seven dollars one year.

During the 1950's, Stan spent six summers working on fire lookouts in the Cascades. The life suited him, and he remembered it fondly. He got a lot of reading done up there, and still managed to spot what fires there were.

In 1953, Stan married a former U of O classmate, Joan Mimnaugh. They had been married for almost 58 years when she died last spring. Theirs was a strong partnership. Among other things, Stan was grateful for her social energy, which helped keep him from as solitary a life as he likely otherwise would have lived.

Stan received a Masters and Ph.D in European History from Harvard University and after several years teaching at Wesleyan University he returned with Joan to Eugene and the U of O in 1957 to begin a 35 year teaching career here. As a member of the History Department, he dedicated himself to excellent teaching and serious scholarship. In 1964, he was the recipient of the University's Ersted Award for outstanding teaching. At the time, he described the goal of the successful teacher to be "prompting students to ask questions worth asking?I want to sensitize students to important problems. Many students drift through college without ever experiencing a change in attitude. I want to produce a self-generating curiosity, and develop in them a life-time sensitivity to the world around them." Stan received a number of fellowships and awards over the years, which enabled Joan and him to spend three wonderful years living in Europe while he did research.

Stan wrote four books on European history, one of which won the Best Book Prize from the Pacific Coast branch of the American Historical Association. A number of his books reflected the view he expressed in a 1964 interview with The Register-Guard when he won the Ersted Award: "History still ultimately means, to me, the drama of the individual human spirit." After retiring in 1992, Stan continued to stay connected with the University and colleagues there. He also continued to write and publish. Stan regretted that he was unable to complete what would have been his fifth book. He marveled at how, after he stopped working on it a couple of years ago, and even up to the month before he died, the book was "still writing itself in my head."

Stan loved the U of O, where he met his wife, found his vocation, and made lifelong friends. He was proud to be part of the University and its mission, and grateful for the community he and Joan found in Eugene. Although his sportswriting career ended 70 years ago at the Daily Emerald, he retained a love of Duck sports. He thoroughly enjoyed the Fiesta Bowl win two days after his birthday.

Stan is survived by his brothers David Richard Pierson, of Rolling Hills, California, and Paul Pierson of Pasadena, California. He is also survived by sons Mike (Caroline) of Seattle, Washington, Kit (Rachel) of Arlington, Virginia, and Paul (Tracey) of Berkeley, California, seven grandchildren and numerous nieces and nephews.

Stan's family wishes to express its gratitude to the staff of New Horizons in Eugene, and in particular to Darlene Baumeister, for the care they provided Stan and Joan in recent years.

A memorial service will take place on Friday, February 1, at the Central Presbyterian Church in Eugene, at 2 p.m., followed by a reception there. Donations in Stan's memory can be made to the History/UO Foundation, c/o the University of Oregon History Department, specifying that they are for the Pierson Lecture Fund.Please sign the guest book at www.registerguard.com/legacy

To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.

Published by Eugene Register-Guard on Jan. 20, 2013.

Memories and Condolences
for Stan Pierson

4 Entries

Bruce Kreitzberg

March 4, 2025

Stan Pierson was one of my two most memorable professors at UO. After meeting him, I tried to take more of his classes and I was never disappointed. He was a serious thinker and a serious teacher and he did not suffer intellectual laziness or sloppy thinking. When I took his classes in the early 1990s, he still held to what I assume was an old fashioned custom of addressing students as "Mr." I appreciated the rigor and seriousness implied by this formality. He was less inclined to coddle than some others and once or twice met a student's comment with, "no, I don't see that value in that at all!" He was an eloquent lecturer, prepared, articulate and equally capable with the biggest ideas or themes as he was with details. I admired him enormously and worked all the harder to try to match his expectations and his modeling. I especially liked his class on European cultural history and would visit his office hours to try to tease out more understanding of difficult philosophical concepts like being vs becoming and the like. Once, when I had to take five final exams in two days, I was overwhelmed and unable to meet the challenge. Studying sufficiently for Prof Pierson's exam was one of the places I fell short and at the time of the exam's start, I could not bring myself to attend and just try, so loathe was I to write a subpar essay for this teacher. I walked around, bought a street hot dog and then sense and practicality prevailed and I arrived late to start writing. I saved five minutes at the end of the period to write an apologetic note to my professor apologizing for being less prepared. He wrote back that I was "too hard on myself," which I thought was generous and kind. 22 or 23 years later, working in landscaping for my small, Eugene based business, I had the luck and pleasure of meeting Stan one more time. He did not remember me, but I remembered myself to him and he modestly joked that the experience of being his student had had no lasting deleterious effects on me? I only got to speak to him in that first meeting or maybe one more time about a practical garden matter because he passed away just months later and perhaps, he was not well enough to step out of the house and talk to me. Still, it was nice to have an epilogue with this man who did challenge me as a historian and as a thinker. I think of him as a classic, academic gentleman who lived a solid, modest life and contributed to the education and enrichment of thousands of people like myself.

Amy Joseph Pedersen

January 30, 2013

Thank you so much for letting me know. I read the beautiful obituary and found myself tearing up. He was simply a wonderful human being and I am sure you are very proud that he was your father. I knew some of those personal bits (like the lookout job), and his war service, but of course much of it was new to me. One of the quotes you selected to use (At the time, he described the goal of the successful teacher to be "prompting students to ask questions worth asking. I want to sensitize students to important problems. Many students drift through college without ever experiencing a change in attitude. I want to produce a self-generating curiosity, and develop in them a life-time sensitivity to the world around them.") was absolutely perfect. By his own definition, he was the most successful teacher I ever had. I am sorry for your loss, especially coming so soon after your mother's death. I look forward to making a gift to the Pierson Lecture Fund.

January 24, 2013

Pierson children: your parents and I were members at Central Presbyterian for many years. I served with your Mom on a Pastor Nominating Committee in the mid 80's and got to know and appreciate both of your parents through that process. My father, a retired Presbyterian minister who met your parents on visits to Eugene, died last September. In reading your father's obituary I discovered that he and my dad were both in the 66th Infantry Division in France in WWII. My dad was a mortar sergeant. It is too bad that these two veterans never got a chance to talk about their common bond, but they may well be attending a Black Panther reunion right now. Peace to you in your loss.

Tom Andersen

Lloyd Paseman

January 20, 2013

I had terrible history teachers in high school and took a very dim view of that subject with me into college at the University of Oregon. My attitude changed, however, during my junior year after I took Stan's "Europe Since 1789" history class. He was a superb teacher and that class instilled in me a fascination with history that continues to this day, more than 50 years later. Stan's class made me realize that most everything that happens is in someway related to things that happened in the past, and that ignoring history's mistakes creates the prospect of repeating them in the future. We see and hear examples of that almost daily. Stan taught me that history is a dynamic, living thing that helps shape our lives and destinies and he gave me a thirst for reading about it that I know I'll never quench--and be grateful that I can't. I never knew about his World War II experiences but I can understand how they informed his view of the world and led him into teaching history, which he did with a tremendous passion. Attending and participating in his classes changed my life in a positive way, helping me become not only a better person but also a better citizen. I never had another teacher quite like him and I'll always remember what being a student of his did for me. He will be missed.

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