Grace W. Pierce-Beck, 82

DOVER - Grace W. Pierce-Beck, 82, of Muirfield Court, Dover, passed away Sunday, Oct. 5, 2008, in Capital Nursing Center, Dover. She was born on May 9, 1926, in Coatesville, Pa., to the late Jacob and Grace Wallace Wagner. Early years were spent in Coatesville and Wilmington with many summers on the Chesapeake. Sharing her childhood were her brother, Jacob Phillip Wagner, who is now deceased, and her sister, Patricia Anne who survives her. She later lived in Dover and spent summers in Slaughters Beach on the Delaware Bay, leading her to attribute her love of nature to having "spent my life between two bays". She was a member of Christ Episcopal Church of Dover. She is a 59 year resident of Delaware. After graduating from Coatesville High School and attended Goldey Beacom and got her secretarial degree. She worked for the DuPont Co. Marrying her childhood sweetheart, Willard Lemar Pierce a Pharmacist and they owned and operated Pierce's Pharmacies until his death in 1978. Raising there family in Dover with him also teaching Sunday School at the Presbyterian Church of Dover and was founding members of Kent Swim Club. She was inducted into the Delaware Women's Hall of Fame in March 2008, she was credited with inspiring the 20 year court battle between the Natural Resources Defense Counsel and the Delaware Audubon Society against Texaco. The case resulted in the largest citizen's suit settlement in Delaware history. She gracefully insisted that the award really belongs to all the people of Delaware, women and men, all of whom had enabled her work, she called "a labor of love for the future." She was President of the Junior Board of Kent General Hospital, President and Board member and Lobbyist for Delaware Audubon Society, President of Delaware Federation of Republican Women, National Audobon's Charles H. Collison Award, Life Time Achievement Award, National Congressional Lobbyist for Wilderness Society. She was instrumental in writing and passing of Delaware's landmark Coastal Zone Act, working with former Governor Russell W. Peterson. She moved on to the Wilderness Society in Washington D.C., as a lobbyist for the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, and the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act and laws that regulate off shore oil drilling. She was head of environmental platform for National Unity Party's candidate John Anderson in 1980, Presidential run and wrote the environmental platform. She was a delegate at the 1968 Republican National Presidential Convention. She was instrumental in passing regulations to save Horseshore Crabs in Delaware. She held a constant vigilance against Oil Companies trying to break the coastal zone act and illegal emissions. She was elected to the Slaughter Beach Town Council. She also was appointed to the Sea Grant Advisory Council. Her motto was "Not blind opposition to progress but opposition to blind progress." She is preceded in death by her husbands, W. Lemar Pierce and Richard G. Beck who was the love of her later life and in one ceremony became husband, father, and grandfather to her family. She is survived by her daughter and her husband, Linda P. and Thomas Dolan of Millsboro; son, Barry W. C. Pierce of Dover; daughter and her husband, Susan P. and Peter Gottfried of Winter Park, Fla.; sister, Patricia Gabel of St. Augustine, Fla.; seven grandchildren, Anne Quaintance Huntington Dolan, John Pierce Dolan, James Butler Dolan, Christopher Knowles Gottfried, Alexander Pierce Gottfried, Katherine McClements Pierce, Emily McClements Pierce and one great-grand child, Anne Keiran Dolan. Memorial Services will be 2 p.m. Saturday at Christ Episcopal Church in Dover. Burial will be private with the family at the Lake Side Cemetery, Dover. The family request that memorial contributions be given to the Delaware Audobon Society P.O. Box 1713 Wilmington, DE 19899. Letters of condolences may be sent to www.delmarvaobits.com or traderfh@aol.com.