Wilds L. Pierce II was born in Waycross, Georgia on July 9, 1938. At that time, the biggest employer in Ware County and Waycross was the Atlantic Coastline Railroad (“ACL”), which built a large shop in Waycross to maintain its steam engines and freight cars. Wilds’ father Lovick Wilson Pierce was a urologist in private practice. There were two hospitals in Waycross where Dr. Pierce saw patients, the ACL Hospital and the Ware County Hospital. During WWII, Wilds father, Dr. Pierce, was sent to Iran as a medical officer in the U.S. Army where he was put in charge of a hospital. When Wilds’ father returned to Waycross, the ACL Hospital gave him a pin for 25 years of service. This allowed his family the right to ride their trains free of charge. When the railroad started scrapping their steam engines in Waycross, his father arranged for Wilds, who was a young boy, to ride in some of their steam engines. When Wilds was in high school, he used the pass several times to go from Waycross to Atlanta so he could have surgery at Piedmont Hospital for a football injury. Wilds also went to college for his freshman year by train. His early involvement with the Atlantic Coast Lines Railroad and later CSX Transportation, is what gave Wilds an interest in railroads
For the next ten or so years, Wilds worked for several smaller companies as their financial officer. Then in 1978 he got a surprise call from a friend, Randy Seckman, who managed investments for various clients. Randy asked if Wilds would be interested in managing 50 boxcars for his investors/clients. He explained to Wilds that the boxcars he had built in Mexico for his investors were in the process of being shipped to the United States, but the company in Washington, D.C. that Randy had been hired to manage the cars had gone bankrupt. Wilds still felt he could take on the challenge and arranged to have the software developed to manage the railcars; and, as they say, “the rest is history”!
After his children graduated from high school, he started supporting charities that were involved in the health and education of children in need. Included in his efforts are Saddle Up Therapeutic Riding Center, and Kingdom Care, Inc., a Christian -based free medical and dental healthcare clinic, both in Waycross, Eagle Ranch in Flowery Branch, Georgia for boys and girls in crisis, Murphy-Harpst Children’s Centers for abused children in Cedartown, Georgia. , and KIPP Metro Atlanta, a national preparatory school dedicated to preparing students in undeserving communities for success in college and in life. Wilds and his wife Belle have given five scholarships to KIPP students to attend college.
While at the University of Georgia, Wilds Lovick Pierce, II was introduced to his first wife Georgia Parker Pierce in Athens through her sister. They married in Toccoa, Georgia on October 25, 1964. They lived in Atlanta for the next forty years and had four children: Michael Lovick Pierce (1966), Patrick Wilds Pierce (1968), Julie Ann Pierce (1970) and Brian Parker Pierce (1972). They were blessed with seven grandchildren who call Wilds “Pop”: Michael and his wife Anna Wimberly Pierce have Wilds L. Pierce, III, and twin girls: Katharine Nelson Pierce and Georgia Wimberly Pierce (who passed away in 2007). Julie Ann Pierce Ullmann (husband Richard) has Eva Grace Stovall and William Patrick Stovall. Brian and his wife Molly O’Brien Pierce have Curdelia Parker Pierce, and they adopted a little girl from China whose name is Harriette Maysie HeRan Pierce. They all have made their homes in Georgia.
On August 8, 2004, Wilds’ wife Georgia passed away from cancer. In the spring of 2005, Wilds and his son Brian went out to eat at Houston’s following church on Sunday and Wilds ran into a childhood friend Belle Tarver Sims Godwin, whom he had known since preschool, grammar school and they had dated as juniors at Waycross High School and graduated in the same class. Belle lost her husband Ernest Gregory Godwin to cancer in October of 2003. Wilds and Belle started dating again, then they decided to go to Nantucket to get married on September 7, 2005. The fun part was there was an upcoming reunion for the Waycross High School Class of 1956 that Wilds was coordinating for the following October and Belle and Wilds wanted to keep their marriage a secret to surprise their classmates. Needless to say the cat got out of the bag before their reunion. Belle and Wilds purchased a house in the Vinings area of Atlanta where they still live today. Wilds gained two stepchildren, their spouses and three more grandchildren, all of whom call him “Pop” as well. Gregory Ernest Godwin and his wife Valentina (“Tina”) Piekanski Godwin have Valentina Virginia Godwin and Samuel Gregory Godwin, who live in Georgia. Theresa Godwin Parkening and her husband William Christopher Parkening have Luke Christopher Parkening and they live in California.