Ever since they first came to Tokyo nearly 30 years ago, Tim and Lee Pierce have been committed, reliable, community people. Separately and as a duo, they have allied themselves to associations that appeal to them. They came as parents, and are now grandparents, whose conversations often bring in mention of "the children." They are scholars and workers, a strong family and social contributors.
In Pennsylvania, Tim was educated up to eighth grade in a one-room school. He moved on to a Quaker boarding school in Philadelphia, to Kenyon College, Ohio, and eventually to the University of Rochester in New York. He completed his doctorate in nuclear chemistry. Lee came from Tonawanda, near Niagara Falls. She studied biology at the University of Rochester, and entered medical school. After a year she decided against continuing with medicine, and returned to the University of Rochester. "I emerged with a master's and a Ph.D.," she said, then added with a laugh: "And an 'M.r.s.' "
She embarked on postdoctoral work and began teaching embryology. "As I moved on to teaching adults, I found I really liked it," she said. Tim's appointment in research and development of glass and ceramics technologies brought the couple and their two small boys to Tokyo in 1972. Apart from two years away in the 1970s and one year in the '90s, they have been here ever since.