{"id":2141,"date":"2014-03-22T14:03:20","date_gmt":"2014-03-22T14:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/news\/2014\/03\/22\/guy-h-pierce-member-of-the-governing-body-of-jehovahs-witnesses-dies\/"},"modified":"2014-03-22T14:03:20","modified_gmt":"2014-03-22T14:03:20","slug":"guy-h-pierce-member-of-the-governing-body-of-jehovahs-witnesses-dies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/guy-h-pierce-member-of-the-governing-body-of-jehovahs-witnesses-dies\/","title":{"rendered":"Guy H. Pierce, Member of the Governing Body of Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses, Dies"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK\u2014Guy H.\u00a0Pierce, a member of the Governing Body of Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses at their world headquarters in Brooklyn, New York, died on Tuesday, March\u00a018. He was 79 years of age.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr.\u00a0Pierce served on various committees that supervise activities related to the Witnesses and their international Bible-education work. His organizational responsibilities required that he travel extensively, and he used these occasions to provide encouragement for Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses throughout the world. Despite his workload, he was well-known for never being too busy to listen to those needing assistance or advice, and he put others at ease with his warm smile and good sense of humor. His closest associates noted that people from different backgrounds or cultures were naturally drawn to him. In a discourse at a graduation program for full-time ministers, Mr.\u00a0Pierce made remarks that he was known to exemplify: \u201cBe firm for right principles, but be flexible. Do not look down on those in your assignment because their culture is different.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guy Hollis Pierce was born in Auburn, California, on November\u00a06, 1934. He was baptized as one of Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses on August\u00a014, 1955, at the age of 20. He married a fellow Witness, Penelope (Penny) Wong, on May\u00a030, 1977, and the two raised a family together. Mr. and Mrs.\u00a0Pierce became full-time Bible instructors (referred to by Witnesses as regular pioneers). Later, he became a traveling minister of Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses, visiting congregations of Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses throughout the United States to provide spiritual encouragement to other full-time Bible instructors and local congregation members. In 1997, the Pierces were invited to work full-time at the\u00a0United States branch office<\/a>\u00a0of Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses. On October\u00a02, 1999, Mr.\u00a0Pierce was announced as a new member of the Governing Body.<\/p>\n

Mr.\u00a0Pierce was the chairman for the\u00a0129th annual meeting<\/a>\u00a0of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, on the weekend of October 5 and 6, 2013. A total audience of 1,413,676 in 31 countries attended the event either in person or\u00a0via webcast<\/a>. According to the\u00a0Witnesses\u2019 official website<\/a>, this was the largest gathering of Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses to date.<\/p>\n

In addition to his wife, Penny, Mr.\u00a0Pierce is survived by his six children, several grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. He will also be fondly remembered by Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses around the world whom he regarded as family.<\/p>\n

In a statement, his fellow members of the Governing Body commented on \u201chis solid faith and firm stand for Jehovah\u2019s laws and principles,\u201d adding: \u201cOur memories of his courageous and faithful earthly life course will continue to strengthen us for years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

Media Contact(s):<\/em><\/p>\n

International: J.\u00a0R.\u00a0Brown, Office of Public Information, tel. +1\u00a0718\u00a0560\u00a05000<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0http:\/\/www.jw.org\/en\/news\/by-region\/world\/guy-pierce-governing-body-member-dies\/<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK\u2014Guy H.\u00a0Pierce, a member of the Governing Body of Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses at their world headquarters in Brooklyn, New York, died on Tuesday, March\u00a018. He was 79 years of age. \u00a0 Mr.\u00a0Pierce served on various…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}