Coast eye doctor saw this coveted crown return home before he died
Dr. Patrick Louis Pierce, retired Gulfport ophthalmologist, lived long enough to see his family reclaim the Trout King crown.
The Long Beach resident and member of the Gulfport Yacht Club had caught so many trout that fellow anglers called him the Trout King. Club members decided to start an annual Trout King tournament with friendly competition to dethrone him, said his wife Martita.
Some believed he had a special touch for feeling the lure because he had been an eye surgeon, but he had no special powers, she said.
Pierce won the crown the first four years of the tournament as the event gained traction, with trophies given out for awards.
Pierce was in a nursing home recently due to failing health when the annual tournament rolled around. His sons-in-law decided to enter the tournament on his behalf. One of them won the title. Pierce joked that the crown “came back to the family,” his wife said.
Pierce, 82, died on Tuesday, July 31.
He had practiced ophthalmology at his eye center, Pierce Eye Clinic, on Pass Road in Gulfport for 30 years, and retired some 20 years ago in his early 60s.
He also is a former chief of staff at Memorial Hospital at Gulfport.
Eye and vision care was only a part of his life, but he was a man of humor whatever his season in life, Martita Pierce said.
“He was a kind, loving, happy man,” said his wife of 58 years.
He loved hunting quail and fishing with his buddies on his boat, the Skip Jack II.
He also was a spiritual man. He hosted an annual Mass of Anointing of the Sick at his home for St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church for about 12 years, and enjoyed helping local charities.
‘Five Women And Me’
Raised in Biloxi, Pierce was Mr. Biloxi High in 1953.
He obtained his medical degree from the University of Tennessee at the age of 22 and interned at Gorgas Hospital in the Panama Canal Zone. That’s where he met his wife one summer when she had returned home for a visit while attending an all-girls college in Ohio.
They married, and shortly afterward, Pierce learned he would be drafted into military service if he didn’t volunteer, his wife said.
He volunteered and joined the Air Force as a flight surgeon and was stationed in Turkey. Over 2 1/2 years, he obtained the rank of captain and he his wife traveled to numerous counties as often as they could.
“He loved traveling to the Holy Land,” his wife said. “Back then, you could drive a car through Syria, Jordan and Jerusalem and it wasn’t a problem.”
Pierce’s residency in ophthalmology was at Tulane University Medical School in New Orleans. The couple moved to Long Beach, deciding to make the Mississippi Coast their home.
Pierce, the father of four daughters, often jokingly said he planned to write an autobiography entitled “Five Women And Me: How To Live Without Civil Rights.” The fifth woman was his wife, he said.
“Everybody did everything for him and was constantly at his feet,” his wife said. “He was spoiled rotten. Everybody loved him.”
He was proud his daughters, Lisa, Sandra, Stella and Vanessa, gave him four sons-in-law who were like sons, plus 11 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, Martita Pierce said.
Before his death, he asked that no one send flowers, but make a memorial donation to Feed My Sheep in Gulfport.
A funeral Mass will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday at St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church with visitation beforehand starting at 9:30 a.m.
This story was originally published August 2, 2018 at 6:00 AM.