Wallace Piner

Wallace Piner lost his courageous battle with the insidious disease of Alzheimer’s on December 10, 2017.

He was born on May 4, 1944 in New Hanover County to Linford and Jessie Garner Piner. He was the youngest of their three sons.

Wallace graduated from New Hanover High School in 1962 and East Carolina with a B.S. degree in Industrial Arts Education with a minor in math. He returned to New Hanover County schools to teach Industrial Arts, Math, and Aerospace. He was very proud that some of his students in this class became captains on airliners. He retired from teaching at the young age of 51.

He married his wife Joyce Clark who grew up in Western Pender County, in 1968 and they made their home on Harbor Island at Wrightsville Beach, NC, for over forty years. At the end of 2003, they made the wrenching decision to sell their house due to being flooded in 1996 and 1999 by Hurricanes Fran and Floyd. They purchased a motor home and became full time RVers until 2013 when they moved to Huntersville, NC, to be near their grandchildren.

While living at Wrightsville Beach, Wallace was a member of Wrightsville Beach United Methodist Church and the Wrightsville Beach Lions Club, having served as Treasurer and President of this organization. Also, he did a pretty good impersonation of Santa Claus for ten years at the Christmas Eve program at Wrightsville Beach sponsored by the Lions Club. He thoroughly enjoyed riding in on the fire truck with the sirens blaring every Christmas Eve and watching the excitement of the children.

Wallace loved his family, living at Wrightsville Beach, flying his own airplane, playing bridge, following the Atlanta Braves, the UNC Tar Heels, and the Carolina Panthers, and traveling, especially the summers spent at Jaymar Travel Park, a 55+ park in Hendersonville, NC.

He is survived by his wife Joyce, whom he adored, his daughter Elizabeth and Husband Sudhir of Columbia, MD, his son Will and wife Sara of Huntersville, NC, his son Matt and wife Millie of Raleigh, NC, and five grandchildren Alex Boer, Jack Piner, Drew Piner, Sofia Piner, and Olivia Piner. He is also survived by his oldest brother John and his wife Eleanor and their two daughters Andrea Zuschin and Amy Howard, and his brother-in-law Wayne Clark.

A celebration of life will be held in Huntersville in the Spring. Memorials may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association, the charity of one’s choice, or offer to sit with an Alzheimer’s patient to give the caregiver a bit of respite.