In Memory

Michele Montilluer (Pierce)

 

PIERCE, MICHELE ELAINE Michele was born in Olean, New York, and lived most of her childhood in Detroit, Michigan, and the Chicago area. After graduating from Forest View High School in Mount Prospect, Illinois, Michele moved to Kodiak, Alaska, with her parents. There she met and married U.S. Coast Guard pilot, Charles Hughes currently of Coeur d'Alene, ID. They lived in Alaska and Honolulu and had two sons, Sean and Patrick. The couple later divorced, so Michele moved to San Diego, California, where she took a job working as a teller in Home Federal Savings and Loan. And like the bright star that she was, she eventually worked her way up through the ranks to the position of branch manager and subsequently managed the Poway and Visalia, California branches. Following the Savings and Loan closures in the '80s, Michele found work as a trust manager at Danielson Trust Management, in San Diego. She took night classes at San Diego City College for years pursuing a lifelong dream of becoming a Registered Nurse. In the course of her studies at SDCC, she met Burt Pierce in the Biology Lab. In 1995, the two were married. In 1997, she entered San Diego City College School of Nursing and in 1999 graduated with honors, having earned her Associate of Science Degree in Nursing. Michele easily passed her board exams and, after a short tenure at Scripps Green Clinic in La Jolla, CA, was soon working full time as a Neonatal Intensive Care Nurse at Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego. While working full time at Rady, she continued her studies at University of San Diego, and University of Phoenix. She graduated from University of Phoenix in 2002, again with honors, earning her Bachelor's of Science Degree in Nursing. In the fall of 2003, still working full-time, Michele entered the Loma Linda University Neonatal Nurse Practitioner Program. She graduated, again with honors, in the summer of 2006 earning her Master's Degree in Nursing. Following her graduation from Loma Linda, Michele accepted a one-year position as a Neonatal Nurse Practitioner at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, MO. Then in the summer of 2007 Michele applied for and accepted a position at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Doernbecher Children's Hospital in Portland, OR. At that time, she and her husband purchased a home in the Portland area and, with their three dogs Yancy, Megan, and Beau, and their two cats Abby and Katie, moved north. Working in the intensive care unit at the hospital, she provided critical care to babies, some of which were small enough to hold in one hand. Care in this unit requires highly specialized skills, ability to make critical decisions, and frequent parental involvement. Michele approached both her clinical responsibilities and her interactions with families with honesty, sensitivity, and professionalism. Michele was a loving mother and wife as well as a hard-working dedicated professional. She was widely regarded as a gifted nurse practitioner with a friendly, welcoming manner and a spontaneous sense of humor. Though life had never come easily for Michele - her father died when she was a child and her relationship with her mother was adversarial - she worked tirelessly to build a good life and provide for her sons, overcoming adversity, hardship and pain. She was most truly a self-made woman. Following Burt's retirement and having achieved her goals, Michele was free to fulfill her dream of a life in the Northwest. Tragically, however, three years after the couple's arrival in Portland, Michele was diagnosed with advanced brain cancer. After a yearlong struggle with the disease, she died peacefully. Michele was predeceased by her father Maurice Charles Montilluer, her mother Wyona Dawn Allen, and her brother Stephen Alan Montilluer. She is survived by her husband Burton E. Pierce, sons Sean Michael Hughes and Patrick Scott Hughes, and sister Kathy Ann Montilluer. We love you sweetheart! Rest in peace.

On behalf of Michele's Classmates of the FVHS Class of '69, we send condolences to the families and know she is missed.