George Wilson Pierson, American History educator. Guggenheim fellow, 1955-1956; Recipient Porter prize Yale University, 1933; Wilbur Lucius Cross medal Yale University Graduate School Association, 1973; Alumni medal Yale University, 1975.
Background
Pierson was a descendant of Yale"s first rector, Abraham Pierson, and he was related to the college"s first student. He was the son of Charles Wheeler Pierson, a New York lawyer who had been valedictorian of the Class of 1886. Like his father, Pierson was at the top of his undergraduate class in 1926.
Education
Pierson earned a Bachelor of Arts at Yale in 1926, and was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy in history from Yale in 1933. His dissertation was "Two Frenchmen in America, 1831-1832," a study of the experiences of Alexis de Toqueville and Gustave de Beaumont in the United States. lieutenant won the distinguished John Addison Porter Prize from the university for best work of scholarship that year.
Career
He was the first official historian of the university. Pierson"s entire academic career unfolded at Yale, beginning in 1926. The value of this early scholarship assumed greater importance as general public interest in Tocqueville"s writing has evolved.
Pierson was named to an endowed professorship in 1946.
He remained active in teaching and as an administrator until his retirement in 1973. Pierson had climbed the academic ladder to become the chairman of the History Department in the late-1950s and early-1960s.
In the foreword to Yale: A Short History, Pierson described Yale as "at once a tradition, a company of scholars, a society of friends.".
Fellow American Academy Arts and Sciences. Member Century Association, American History Association, Phi Beta Kappa (president Yale University chapter 1965-1973, water closet DeVane medal 1974, special medal and citation 1989).
Connections
Married Mary Laetitia Verdery, September 10, 1936 (deceased 1982). Children: Norah, Laetitia Deems. Married Loueva F. Pflueger, March 24, 1988.