Obituary

Samuel Riley Pierce Jr. '44, J.D. '49, former Cornell star halfback and university trustee emeritus and U.S. secretary of housing and urban development under President Ronald Reagan, died Oct. 31 in Washington, D.C. He was 78.

"He was a great man, and I treasure his memory," said Frank H.T. Rhodes, president emeritus of Cornell, during whose term Pierce served as a Cornell trustee.

Pierce entered Cornell with the Class of 1944, distinguishing himself both in the classroom and on the football field. He was a star halfback, equally outstanding in running, passing and kicking, and he also ran varsity track. He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in his junior year.

World War II interrupted his studies. He served in the U.S. Army from 1943 to 1946 in North Africa and Italy, becoming the first African American on the staff of the Army's Criminal Investigation Unit for the Mediterranean theater.

After the war he returned to Cornell and received his A.B. degree in 1947. He went on to Cornell Law School and received a J.D. degree in 1949, going on to earn L.L.M and L.L.D. degrees from New York University.

There followed a distinguished career in law and politics, first as an assistant district attorney for New York County, later as a member of the State Banking Board and as a New York State General Sessions Court judge.

Pierce gained his first experience in the nation's capitol when Cornell professor Arthur Larson was appointed secretary of labor and hired Pierce as his assistant. This led to posts as associate counsel on antitrust for the House Judiciary Committee and general counsel of the U.S. Treasury and ultimately to his appointment to the Reagan cabinet.

Along the way he joined the prestigious New York law firm Battle, Fowler, Stokes and Kheel, which eventually became Battle, Fowler, Jaffrin, Pierce and Kheel, and he served on the boards of several major corporations.

Pierce was a trustee of Cornell from 1972 to 1977 and again from 1978 to 1982. While on the board of trustees he served on the state relations and development advisory committees, chaired the ad hoc committee on athletics in 1974-75 and was a member of the search committee for a new director of athletics during 1975-76.

In the last years of his cabinet term, Pierce came under fire due to allegations that federal housing subsidies had been wrongly distributed to Republican consultants. While he was not found guilty of any wrongdoing, Pierce said he had failed to properly supervise the aides who misused funds.

"In spite of the events in Washington, I think he was very upright and conscientious man," Rhodes said.

Pierce is survived by his wife, Barbara Penn Wright, daughter of the late Dr. Louis Wright, and a daughter, Victoria Wright.