Ann and Jeff Pierce stand in the living room of their Dresden home. The couple, who has been together almost 40 years, is active in the Dresden community. Ann Pierce has been the town’s treasurer and tax collector since 2012 and Jeff Pierce has been on the Dresden Planning Board for 24 years, acting as the board’s chair for 14 years. (Piper Pavelich photo)
While finding love is sometimes ascribed to fate, finding a friendship and nurturing it until it becomes something more is a choice. Nearly 40 years ago, Jeff and Ann Pierce agreed to take a leap of faith, and they continue to make that choice every day.
For Ann Pierce, crossing paths with Jeff Pierce was life altering, in the best way possible.
“I think he saved my life … I was heading in a self-destructive path, and he came along at the right time,” said Ann Pierce. “He helped me move in a more positive direction.”
For roughly 30 years, the Pierces have called Dresden home. Ann Pierce is a familiar face in the town office, holding the position of treasurer and tax collector, and Jeff Pierce is a booming voice, providing leadership on the Dresden Planning Board. When he’s not diving into the town’s ordinances, Jeff Pierce is running his business, Jeffrey Pierce Restorations and Renovations, which he started nearly 35 years ago.
Jeff Pierce is also known for serving as a state representative in District 53 from 2014-2018. At the time, District 53 consisted of Arrowsic, Dresden, Georgetown, Phippsburg, Woolwich, and part of Richmond.
Before Dresden became their home base, the couple frequented Popham Beach State Park in Phippsburg, a location that is still important in their relationship today.
In 1986, Jeff and Ann Pierce, who were 24 and 20, respectively, were introduced to each other at Popham Beach by a mutual friend who happened to be dating one of Ann’s sisters at the time. Both Jeff and Ann were often at the beach, as he was a park ranger at the state park and her stepfather had a fishing camp there, they said.
Ann Pierce said when she saw Jeff Pierce for the first time, it was “love at first sight.”
“He was the most beautiful man I’d ever seen, but I thought he was crazy,” she said. “I was looking for a bad boy to upset my parents, and it totally backfired.”
When Jeff Pierce first went to her house to meet her parents, he was surprised to learn he had already known her stepfather for six years or so at that point. The couple said they had no idea he and her stepfather had already met.
“My stepdad, you know, he was a World War II vet, pretty strict guy, always was cleaning his shotgun if I brought a boy home, that kind of thing,” Ann Pierce said. “He was like, ‘You know, Ann, there’s something about him I like. He’s a diamond in the rough.’”
“I showed him how to clean the shotgun,” Jeff Pierce said, with obvious humor. “Fate does play roles.”
The Pierces noted that neither of them was looking for a serious relationship when they met, but their chance meeting led them to reconsider. They quickly found out that they shared similar qualities, such as preferring a night on the beach with a bonfire over bar hopping.
“I found he was a refreshing change from the crowd that I was hanging out with at the time,” said Ann Pierce. “I don’t feel the need – and I didn’t back then – to, like, belong to a group or be the center of attention … and I found that very attractive about Jeff.”
Jeff Pierce noted that meeting Ann put things into perspective for him.
“It helped us both grow up,” he said. “I was really happy just hanging out on the beach playing park ranger but I realized I probably ought to get my business going full time, get a career … It kind of gave us both purpose, to take the next step.”
After dating for about a year, the pair moved into their first home together, a camper on a property in Phippsburg.
Jeff Pierce proposed to Ann Pierce on Wood Island, an island just off Popham Beach, at sunset. He recalled he had the keys to the gate at the beach, so he drove them out to the island when the tide was low. However, they didn’t make it back before the tide rose again, effectively trapping themselves on the little island. Jeff Pierce said he had to call the park manager to help them get back to the mainland.
The pair got married in Phippsburg in August 1989, where the park manager stood by Jeff Pierce as one of his groomsmen.
They said every August, they return to Phippsburg for a month to celebrate their anniversary on Popham Beach.
The couple had their children in 1990 and 1991, and they bought their current home in Dresden in 1995.
While the Pierces have had many years of love and laughter together, they said they knew from the beginning that not everything would come easily. The pair noted that they have always been willing to suffer a little together if it means they can get ahead together.
“We were both humbled, but we didn’t need much,” said Jeff Pierce. “We were both pretty well-grounded … Yeah, we had some tight times, but we always kept working for a goal, and we worked at that goal together.”
Jeff Pierce described their relationship as dynamic, with him and Ann Pierce playing many roles.
“First year, you have to be friends, then you’re lovers, then you’re a couple, then you’re parents, then spouses, and you’re business partners, but you’re still going to be friends at the end,” said Jeff Pierce. “You have to wear all those hats, but I can’t be wearing my lover hat while she’s wearing her business partner hat, right? A relationship is a lot of hats. You have to recognize that, and, if you don’t … You’re not going to get along very well.”
Ann Pierce said she appreciates that Jeff Pierce has never let her down over the four decades they have known each other.
“I’ve never had to worry about my safety or my security, and he loves me on my good days and my bad days,” said Ann Pierce.
While they have had to work together to progress as a couple and to raise their family, Jeff and Ann Pierce said that part of the beauty of their relationship is that they don’t always agree. If they did, it would make things boring, they said.
“A lot of people don’t realize you have to be able to disagree but not be hateful about it, because you can never put those words back, ever,” Jeff Pierce said.
Ann Pierce noted there has only been one time in their relationship that the couple disagreed to the point that she yelled at Jeff Pierce, when they first lived together in Phippsburg. The day after an argument, Jeff picked Ann up from work, telling her he had a surprise for her. Once they returned home, Ann happily closed her eyes and held out her arms, thinking it was a leather jacket she had been eyeing from a local shop. However, she was met with a five-gallon bucket of cold water being poured over her head instead.
“I was in shock. I did have a laugh though,” Ann Pierce said. “I was the youngest of five, I always had my butt kissed all my life, and I just didn’t expect that … That’s when I knew I really loved him, after I got over the initial shock.”
“It was the best thing I ever did,” said Jeff Pierce.
The couple said they enjoy spending time together, no matter what it entails. They enjoy quiet nights at home with their three cats and two dogs, as well as walks on the beach.
(The Lincoln County News is celebrating Valentine’s Day this February with “Couples of the County,” a twist on our “Characters of the County” column and a month-long celebration of local love. Do you have a suggestion for a subject? Email info@lcnme.com with the subject line “Characters of the County” and provide a way to contact the nominee.)
