Originally published in Florida Weekly by Roger Williams on January 30, 2025
The long-ago day he set out in his 16-foot Carolina skiff with a girlfriend to fish Matlacha Pass, his old man, Bill Pierce, played the parent roll.
Bill Pierce warned his son not to go, as parents will. The weather was rough, the boat was small. Remembering what happened now through clear-eyed grief, Bill Pierce remains deeply, intensely proud. It was a bell-ringing moment in the great clock of time that sounded a single truth: His beloved son, Codty Pierce, who left the world suddenly and unexpectedly on Jan. 13, 2025, at the age of 34, was singularly and fiercely independent all his life — he did things his way.
And the way he did them had force, wisdom, passion and compassion, along with deep determination and skill — even if he got himself into a jam.
Original Story