His first chapter started out on an exciting note as he was born in Guantanamo Bay at a Navy base in Cuba. His father was a navel officer. Cuba was a beautiful place. Pierce spent his first three and a half years there.

 

The family then moved to Menlo Park, California, where Pierce’s dad got a job working for Defense Electronics. Pierce grew up in California. After High School, he went into the Police Academy and became a police officer from 1973-1976. During this time, he took classes at the local community college and attended Santa Clara College where he got his degree in Marketing.

 

It was during this time that Pierce experienced an adult acquisition of his faith. He embraced the Catholic Church and fell in love with Jesus Christ.

 

In 1979, he entered the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) as a novice and after two years, he took vows as a Jesuit seminarian.

 

He was sent to Gonzaga University for two years to study Philosophy. At the end of his studies, Pierce made the decision to leave the Jesuits. It was at this point that he realized that maybe he wasn’t called to be celibate. When he left the Jesuits, he decided to pursue two new objectives. One was to stay on at Gonzaga and pursue a master’s degree in counseling philosophy.

 

The other was to pursue Mary Anne, a girl he had met at school.

 

Pierce and Mary Anne have been married for 35 years and have eight children! Yes, I would agree that celibacy was not for Pierce! In the interest of full discloser. Six of his children are birth children and two are adopted. Pierce and Mary Anne both volunteer to help children with special needs and they choose to adopt two of these children themselves. I complimented Pierce on his taking on the challenge of raising a child with special needs, Pierce just looked at me and said, these children only had one need, and that was the love of a family. That was something that Pierce and Mary Anne could provide.

 

Their first child, Eric was adopted at the age of 11 and lived to be 42. The second child, Jacob was adopted at the age of 5 and lived to be 19. Both children grew up feeling the love of a caring family. I think that says more of this individual than anything else I could tell you.

 

But there are more chapters. Pierce went on to have a long and successful career in business consulting. In 1994, the family moved to Boise Idaho and in 1995, Pierce went to work for Boise Cascade as an HR Generalist.

 

In 1997, Pierce was approached to become a deacon in the Catholic Church. Being a deacon was a great opportunity for Pierce. Married deacons can preach, baptize, perform weddings, and other duties. The only thing they can’t do is become priests, which, as you know, is okay with Pierce! He was ordained as a deacon in 2001 and continues to serve as a deacon in his home parish in Snohomish.

 

The next chapter came as Pierce took a position as Ombudsman for the City of Boise, when the city was racked with anger over some police shootings and failures to follow proper procedures. Contention was very high and under Pierce’s leadership, the community’s faith in the police was restored. 

 

In fact, he did so well, he was contacted by another city with a similar problem by the name of Seattle!

 

From 2013 to 2017, Pierce was the Director of the Office of Police Accountability. This is like the civilian head of internal affairs. After a successful 4-year term, Deacon Murphy was approached by the Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle to take on his current position of Director of Stewardship and Development. He provides a face and voice in the community for the Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle.

 

Pierce is proposed by George Twiss and seconded by Father Steve Sundborg.

 

Policeman, marketer, Jesuit seminarian, husband, father, Consultant, HR generalist, ombudsman, Deacon and still more chapters to go. I am so glad that Pierce was not able to skip to the end or he might have missed some of these exciting chapters.

 

Please welcome our newest Rotarian, Pierce Murphy, classification, Religious Organizations.