Martin Pierson

Martin Pierson, 94, passed away Sunday, January 15, 2023 at Good Samaritan Hospital in Kearney. Graveside services and burial of cremains will be later at the Gibbon Riverside Cemetery. Apfel Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. Memorials are suggested to Bethel United Methodist Church, Kearney Area Animal Shelter or donors choice.

Martin Louis Norman Pierson was born July 5, 1928 near St. Paul, Nebraska. He was the third of four children of Edwin K. and Carrie (Coggins) Pierson. The following year the family moved to their farm in the Bethel Community northwest of Gibbon. In 1941 they moved to a farm three miles northwest of Gibbon which would be his home for seventy years. He was baptized in the Bethel United Brethren Church and remained a member of this United Methodist Church his entire life.

Martin attended school District 25, graduated from Kearney High School in 1945 and Kearney State Teachers College in 1949. He was inducted into the Army in December 1952. Following basic training he served as a hospital corpsman at Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri. In 1954 he was transferred to the inactive reserves and in December 1960 he was honorably discharged from the United States Army.

Martin was employed as a science teacher at the Villisca, lowa school for three terms before returning to the farm where he and his father raised registered angus cattle along with the farming operation. In 1980 he semi-retired due to health and to act as care giver to his mother until her death in 1991. He continued to live on the farm and remained active in managing his property, especially the conservation of water in crop production. Martin also had an interest in the cars of the 1930's and owned several through the years.

In 2011, he moved to Shelton, NE where he maintained in his home with help from family, friends and numerous physicians and with mobility aids provided by the Grand Island Veterans Health Care Systems. Martin became a resident of Tiffany Square in Grand Island in 2019, living there for about eight months. In February of 2020 he was admitted to Central Nebraska Veterans home in Kearney and resided there until his death.

Survivors include his sister, Kay Gill and her husband Don of rural Shelton; sister-in-law, Margaret Pierson of Lincoln; nephews, Eric Pierson and wife Margaret of Lincoln and Kevin Gill of rural Wood River; nieces, Susan Hoppel and husband Larry, Nancy Christatos and husband George all of Lincoln, Linda Snyder and husband Bill of Erie, CO, Donna Dennewitz of Loveland CO, Kary Gill and Mark Hahn of rural Shelton and Kendra Fennessy and husband Sean of Omaha; eight grand nephews and seven grand nieces; seven great grand nephews and four great grand nieces.

He was proceeded in death by his parents; brother, Dr. Edwin Kenneth Jr.; sister, Iris and her husband Gene Baer; nephew, Homer (Denny) Dennewitz; and nieces, Karen Rathje and Angela Gill.