In going through some old materials, we happened upon a 1998 article that was posted in the Bellingham Herald about Jack Pierce, one of the founders of our Bellingham Sister Cities Association back in 1958. He was a man who fought the Japanese at Okinawa, Guam and Bouganville, but who embraced peace and understanding through President Eisenhower’s concept of Sister Cities and establishing our relationship with Tateyama as a way to heal the divisions of World War II. You can read the entire article by clicking here or on the attached copy.
Jack has passed on now (2002), but many of us in Bellingham remember him not just for his work in helping establish our program, but also as the professor of Geography (Far East and Economic Geography) at Whatcom Community College. You know that the Bellingham/Tateyama sister city relationship was only the second in Washington State? Or that Bellingham was the 11th one in the United States to establish a program? It was people like Jack that helped us establish where we are today.
