Charter Hall of Fame member, inducted in 1974 … 1954 Tappan Zee H.S. alumnus … one of the most accomplished of all Rockland athletes … multi-talented scholastic athlete, college baseball star, pro baseball player, amateur golf champion, outstanding coach, physical education teacher and athletic director … at Tappan Zee, was awarded 13 letters in four sports and merited All-Rockland honors in football, basketball and baseball his senior year … in baseball, he earned All-County acclaim four straight years … also high jumped, pole vaulted and ran on 880-yard relay for track team … he played on 1953-54 TZ basketball team, the first in Rockland ever to score more than 100 points in a game (they did it twice) … at Manhattan College, he played basketball two years, then focused on baseball … in 1957, his junior year, Pierson, a shortstop, batted .421 to lead the Metropolitan Conference in hitting and spark Manhattan to the conference title … upon graduation in 1958, he signed with the Philadelphia Phillies and played one season at Williamsport, then during two years of Army duty he led Fort Dix to service titles in baseball and football … he played one more season of minor league ball before starting a career in education at Tappan Zee … he taught science and coached baseball, football and basketball there for three years before moving to Rockland Community College in 1965, where he taught physical education and coached basketball and golf … his first year RCC won the Region 15 basketball crown … Pierson was RCC athletic director from 1972 to 1997, and remains the school’s golf coach … Pierson took up golf in his late 20s and became one of the top amateur players in the country by the early 1970s … he won the Metropolitan Amateur golf championship in 1980, qualified for the U.S. Amateur twice, and played in eight events on the PGA Seniors Tour … Pierson was the first black baseball captain at Manhattan, the first black high school coach in Rockland, the first black athletic director of a New York State community college, the first black to play in the U.S. Amateur golf championship, and among the first black players signed by the Phillies organization.