Doug Pierce, longtime director of Pierce Country Day Camp, dies at 70

Doug Pierce, a force in the camping community on Long Island and the third generation to run Pierce Country Day Camp in Roslyn, died unexpectedly in his sleep on April 5 at his home in Stuart, Florida, his family said. He was 70.     

Pierce was an owner and director of the summer camp for more than 40 years. He grew up in a home adjacent to the camp that his grandfather founded in 1918 and still lived next to the camp grounds during the summers.

“Doug was a giant in the camp profession, not just to the children and families that went to his camp, but also to his colleagues. Whatever needed help, Doug was there with his sleeves rolled up,” said Jay Jacobs, who owns North Shore Day Camp in Glen Cove. “His death is a genuine earthquake in the camp profession.”

Pierce served in positions including president of the New York Camp Directors Association, the Long Island Camps and Private Schools Association and the American Camp Association New York section. He was also very proud to have been appointed by then-Gov. George Pataki to sit on the Camp Safety Advisory Council to help craft regulations for camps in New York State, said Pierce’s nephew Will Pierce, who currently is a fourth-generation owner-director of Pierce Country Day Camp along with Doug’s daughter Courtney Pierce Philippou, of Roslyn.

Doug’s grandfather Pop Pierce launched Pierce Country Day Camp in Deal, New Jersey, in 1918, moved the camp to a rented property in Nassau County a few years later and then purchased the land in Roslyn in the 1930s. More than 900 campers ages 3 to 13 now attend Pierce each summer.

Doug Pierce was born in 1952 in Rockville Centre, attended St. Mary’s in Roslyn, La Salle Military Academy in Oakdale and Hofstra University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in English. After graduating, he joined the camp staff, and became an owner-director in 1984. He was constantly thinking of ways to make camp better, his family said, and would often spend his weekends doing chores such as mowing lawns to make sure every blade of grass at camp was perfect, said his brother Greg, 66, of Roslyn, who runs the family’s sleepaway Camp Birchmont in New Hampshire. “He’d hop on the commercial riding mower for hours. That was his therapy — to be alone and think about what he was doing next,” Greg said. In his spare time, he also loved to golf. 

On camp days, “He’d ride around camp in his trusty golf cart, always with an empty seat next to him for a kid who needed a ride with the Chief,” Will said. Each summer during a camp special event, Doug would leap into the “Hoop of Fire” lighted in the camp’s swimming pool. Even after Doug retired five years ago and became owner-director emeritus, he remained actively involved. “Doug would never miss a color war breakout or a parent event in the evening,” Will said.

Doug is survived by his wife, Marie, whom he met when they were in high school, daughters Jessica and son-in-law Stewart Wright, of Yarmouth, Maine, Jocelyn, of New Orleans, and Courtney and son-in-law Pete Philippou, as well as six grandchildren and his siblings, Patricia McQuade, of Egremont, Massachusetts, Thomas, of Roslyn, Debbie Caiola of Chatham, and Greg.

A wake will be held from 4:30 to 8 p.m. on April 18 and 19 in the camp’s Clubhouse building. The funeral will be at 10 a.m. April 20 at St. Mary's RC Church in Roslyn.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the charity Doug co-founded with Jacobs, called SCOPE, which has sent tens of thousands of children from underserved communities to not-for-profit camps since 1991: justgiving.com/campaign/DougPierce. The charity has received $66,000 in donations since Doug's death, Will said. "That's a lot of extra children at camp, which he would have loved," Will said.

By Beth Whitehouse

beth.whitehouse@newsday.comBethWhitehouse1

Beth Whitehouse writes about families, parenting and great things to do with the kids on Long Island. She’s been a Newsday editor and shared a 1997 Newsday staff Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the crash of TWA Flight 800.