From Physician to Mortician to Educator

As president of the Los Angeles Board of Education in the 1940s, Clarence W. Pierce was dismayed to learn that schoolchildren knew so little about agriculture and animals.

A physician-turned-mortician by profession, Pierce was born and reared on a farm in upstate New York. Even though he had lived in Los Angeles since 1894, he kept in touch with his agrarian roots by working on a ranch he owned in Canoga Park.

To give students the education they could not get books, Pierce spearheaded an effort to open an agricultural college on 392 acres in Woodland Hills.

Pierce earned his medical degree from USC in 1898 and worked as a physician in private practice for more than 30 years.

In 1933, after retiring from medicine, he joined his three brothers in their Pierce Bros. Mortuaries, serving as treasurer for the funeral homes.

In retirement, the doctor, known for his charm and powers of persuasion, was encouraged to run for the Board of Education, a post he won in 1939 by a comfortable margin despite having never held an elected seat.

On the board--which in those years had jurisdiction over all city schools, including colleges--he found a kindred spirit in fellow member Vierling Kersey Sr., who joined him in the cause to establish an agricultural school in the district.

Using contacts he’d made with his neighbors in Canoga Park, Pierce urged the school district to buy land on unpaved Winnetka Avenue that he believed would be ideal for the campus because of its rich, fertile and diverse soil.

Once the land was secured, Pierce supervised construction of the campus and established its curriculum. He faded into the background, allowing the college’s administration to lead its future development.

In 1947, the Clarence W. Pierce School of Agriculture opened its doors, six years before Pierce died.

Pierce College, which marks its 50th anniversary this fall, remains the only one of the nine campuses in the Los Angeles Community College District named for a person.