Shy guy now go-to guy: Museum's Pierce sees people and their needs as events manager

Editor's note: Wednesday begins Black History Month. The Reporter-News throughout the month will present stories related to this observance, beginning with the story of Thomas Pierce, events manager at The Grace Museum.

Life is like a box of chocolates, Forrest Gump said.

But life is better with M&Ms.

After a morning fire relocated Reporter-News newsroom staff to the boardroom of The Grace Museum in November 2016, the shell-shocked crew, still on deadline, was made at home.

Thomas Pierce provided a bowl of M&Ms. It was a little thing on a big and busy day, but it was appreciated. It's the kind of thing Pierce does as events manager at the museum. He has been there since 2014.

Pierce is tasked with making things happen, but he tries to make those things happen in the best way possible.

Weddings, for example.

Everyone wants those to go off perfectly, but not all do. And while the bride may be calm and collected, her mother may not be. Pierce has learned to navigate apprehension, tension and expectation.

This is a guy who admits that he was so shy that he said no to his Junior ROTC commander's encouragement to join the military because he had shown leadership skills.

Thomas Pierce, the events manager for The Grace Museum, in the courtyard Friday, where many of his efforts come to life.
Thomas Pierce, the events manager for The Grace Museum, in the courtyard Friday, where many of his efforts come to life.

"You just got to get out of your shell," he said they told him. No thanks, he told them.

This is the guy who knew about "computer things" in high school and nothing about art?

"Thomas is very good at his job but most importantly, he sees people," Grace Executive Director Laura Moore said. "He always strives to meet their needs but most importantly, be kind. "

Who is Thomas Pierce?

"I am from Abilene, Texas ... born and raised Abilenian," he says, laughing.

Pierce, 27, is a 2013 graduate of Abilene High, He did not go to college.

"I was a poor student. I knew that from the beginning," Pierce said. "I was in remedial classes. I had some sort of dyslexia. So college was, uh, I'm not feeling it. "

He took a year off and then began work.

"The first job just happened to be The Grace," he said. His father worked on the event staff there.

Pierce did the basics. Set up tables and chairs. Swept. Mopped. Whatever needed to be done.

But he was working with his father.

"My family dynamic is a little different, My mom is actually from Africa," he said.

And his dad, who met her in Tanzania as a missionary, is white. They married.

"Legitimately, I am African-American," he said. He has a younger sister.

His dad, he said, had to trade goats for his mother.

How many?

"I don't remember," he said, laughing. "I don't want to undershoot her. We're going to say 20, but ..."

The couple moved to the U.S. and eventually to Abilene. HIs father originally was from the Dallas-Fort Worth area. A relative helped them settle in Abilene in the mid-1990s. Both found work in the medical field here.

Though she was adapting to cultural change, his mother decided she would enter college. She worked at a nursing home, taking a 12-hour, overnight shift eventually as an LVN so she could study during the day. His dad held two jobs, maybe three at times, Pierce said.

Mom became a registered nurse, graduating from Abilene Christian University.

"But it took a while," he said. "My mom was studying, so a lot of my interactions were with my dad."

He looks back on that now, admiring what his mother did but also vowing to be a more involved parent.

From shy to go-to guy

"I was a super shy person," Pierce said of starting work at The Grace. "Ultimately, this job got me out of my shell."

Now, he's the event manager.

"You want to book, you go through me," he said. Those leadership skills have come into play. He heads a team that makes things happen.

"I pretty much worked my way up from the bottom," he said. "Because you are a nonprofit, you find yourself doing a lot of other things."

That could be helping in the children's area or moving art.

And there are the weddings. Pierce's team for a time managed weddings at the museum and at the T&P Warehouse. Sometimes, there would be weddingd at the same time.

Once, there was a surprise wedding. Guests arrived not knowing they had been invited to nuptials.

"They thought they were coming to a birthday party" he said. "They showed a birthday video and then the wedding is happening. I don't think they told them they were engaged."

Pierce has to roll with it, too.

"The majority of events are weddings, and I have to deal with brides," he said. "I used to be pretty shy but I tell you what, the brides got it out of me. Especially those moms, those brides' moms. I have had more situations with brides' moms."

But eventually making them happy.

He realizes they've spent a of money "on one special day, the uniting of two families This is a high-stress situation.

"The best feeling I get is at the end of the night, when they are leaving, they stop and say, 'Thomas, thank you.' They look you in the eye and tell you how grateful they are and how much a difference you made.

"It wasn't until I got married that I realized how much of a difference I was making."

Wait, you're married?

"Last August, actually," he said. He met his wife, Kaylee, at the museum, where she worked as a front-desk receptionist. From Anson, she now teaches history at Craig Middle School.

"That's why she liked the museum so much. She's a big history person," he said.

As for being surrounded by history and art, Pierce said "it didn't click for me much. But the thing that got is was meeting the artists. When you meet them, they start explaining things. (The art) began getting dimension. Before, they were just something on a canvas. Then they started to have personality.

"I definitely appreciate art a lot more."

It helps, too, that others at the museum have art educations, which has rubbed off on him. He keeps learning.

"I love my job," he said.

In high school, he thought he might get into a computer-related field but, he said, "there was something missing. It wasn't personable enough. And yet I was shy.

"For some reason, I liked people but I was really shy. This job got me out of my shell. It gave me that people interaction that I really enjoy. I've come to really enjoy serving people."

Being the only Black guy

Pierce is unique in that his parents have an interracial marriage. And, his mother is from Africa.

Still, he is Black, the only Black currently on the museum staff.

"A of people don't think about, there is a difference between American Black and African Black. People will say, 'You don't act like most Black people,' and it's because I'm not really like American, I am more from Africa. Not a lot of people have an African mom and an American dad.

"I was blessed with a people who didn't care about my skin color. I see past that a little bit."

And, he said, his parents didn't have to teach to that at home.

"My mom doesn't have that background of segregation and things that might have happened back then," he said. He has friends who have been affected by racial issues, such as not been given a fair chance because of their skin color.

Pierce has a friend who works at a museum in San Antonio. He understands there is effort to bring "more people of color into higher positions. People are recognizing, "Let's start diversifying a little bit.'"

All in the family

And to continue his family dynamic, Kaylee is white.

She brought a 2-year-old son into their relationship, a boy who now is 8 and has grown up with Pierce around.

"I became a dad figure," he said, "When I proposed to her, he was bawling tears. I said, 'Cameron, what's wrong, bud?' And he was, 'I'm so happy!'"

By the way, the Pierce wedding was not at The Grace.

Not that it couldn't have been.

But for Pierce, the turf - or terrazzo - was too familiar.

"I had worked at The Grace for, what, seven years? I'd seen so many weddings. My wife knows that when I'm at work, I turn on work mode. So, I definitely would've been working.

"And at that point, I was managing things so if I broke something, it would've been 'Oh no!'"

Call the manager.

This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Shy guy now go-to guy: Museum events manager Pierce sees people's needs