Greg Pierce, who died July 8.

Updated 8 p.m. July 22.

OLYMPIA, July 22.—An overflow crowd of hundreds paid tribute Sunday to Greg Pierce, longtime lobbyist for the Washington Roundtable and a career-long figure at the state Capitol. Pierce, 63, died July 8 after a long battle with cancer.

The service at Chambers Bay Golf Course in University Place attracted friends and colleagues, among whom might be counted some of the most prominent figures in statehouse politics, including former Gov. Gary Locke, Sen. Dino Rossi, R-Sammamish, and House Speaker Frank Chopp.

Pierce is remembered by friends and colleagues as a consummate lobbyist in the best sense of the word – a person whose word could be trusted, and who quite frequently was the voice of reason in the room. Though prominent among the ranks of business-community lobbyists, Pierce seldom made news himself, another sign of effectiveness in a spotlight-shunning trade. Members get the attention, their bills make the headlines, but lawmakers and staffers say Pierce was part of the glue that held the institution together.

“He was a true professional,” said Senate Minority Leader Mike Hewitt, R-Walla Walla. “He was very, very good at what he did. The thing that I really admire about Greg is that his word was as good as gold. When he told you something, he was going to stick by it, and in Olympia, that’s the most important thing.”

Like many who make their careers in the marble halls, Pierce began as a legislative staffer and worked his way up. During the administration of Gov. Booth Gardner he was a deputy to Revenue director Bill Wilkerson; under state Sen. Nita Rinehart, D-Seattle, he spent three years as staff director of the Senate Ways and Means Committee.

Former Gov. Gary Locke, left, attends Sunday’s ceremony. Pierce’s wife Susan Nakagawa at center.

“I think of you had to pick one quality that stood out for him, it was his amazing ability to work with pretty much everybody he met,” Rinehart said. “I think that came from the power of his integrity. He was supersmart but he never behaved as if he was smarter than anybody else.”

Pierce hung out his shingle as a contract lobbyist and in 1996 signed up the Washington Roundtable, an association of the state’s largest employers. In that role friends say he became a leader within the business lobby, a consensus-builder in an often-fractious community. A blue-chip client list put him at center stage in the Legislature’s biggest battles; among those he represented were AT&T, Bristol-Meyers, Port Blakely Tree Farms, Russell Investment Group, Vulcan Northwest, the Washington Forest Protection Association, the Washington Mortgage Lenders Association, and the Washington Savings League. Some clients he shared with lobbyist Rob Makin, including Comcast, United Grocers, Microsoft and the Washington Wholesale Druggist Association.

David Schumacher, staff director for the Senate Ways and Committee and a former Boeing lobbyist, said Pierce’s background as a staffer and deep knowledge of the legislative culture made him effective. “He was part of making this place work,” he said. “I think it probably came from his being a staff guy before he became a lobbyist. He did what someone in my position does, not necessarily push for an outcome but push for a conclusion to help things and find out where the common ground might be. A lot of that came from him being somebody that people would respect, because he had been in this position before and he could help them see their way to a final deal. He’d worked on the inside and he was a really smart guy who knew where to go. He worked all parts of the process in the House and the Senate, and in the governor’s office, working the potential veto process. It wasn’t just a matter of getting a bill out and hoping for the best.”

Pierce was born Sept. 3, 1948 in Portland, Ore., and graduated from Cleveland High School. He earned degrees in economics from Reed College in Portland and Tufts University in Boston. He is survived by his wife, Susan Nakagawa, daughters Alison Pierce VanDis and Kelsey and son Max.

Pierce traveled extensively and managed to complete the Boston Marathon twice. But what Capitol folk remember most of course is golf: Schumacher says he can remember beating Pierce only once in 20 years.

Pierce on ATV.

Steve Mullin, president and CEO of the Washington Roundtable, said Pierce was clearly one of the key players at the statehouse. “His integrity, his intelligence, his decency and trustworthiness made him perfectly suited to the role of finding common ground among folks with different points of view. He was someone who I think was trusted by folks with all sorts of different perspectives. I don’t think you can quantify the impact he had, certainly on the work of the Roundtable but also more broadly. He was often involved in the nitty-gritty of the final negotiations around the state budget and many other critical issues. He just had a knack of finding where people could agree.”

Said former House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, “Greg Pierce was the epitome of what a good lobbyist should be. He was honest. He was a gentleman. He was aggressive, which is good, but he always answered questions truthfully, and he was a great advocate for his clients. But he never forgot that he was there to inform us and to hopefully get us to his way of thinking, just by giving us some really good honest information.

“I know lobbyists have become kind of a bad word, but I always used to tell people that, well, actually they’re there to inform us. When I think of Greg, I think of just an absolutely nice man, a completely nice man, and a good man, and someone I always listened to because I knew I was getting the real deal from him.”

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