SAL Case Study: The Charlie & Muriel Pierson Story

Quiet Self-Action Leadership from the Silent Generation

Part 1

It is one thing to exercise effective SAL for a day-or-two, or a couple of weeks—or even a few months or years. Practicing it for the better part of an entire lifetime, however, is another matter! This chapter’s case study highlights the life story of two remarkable people who accomplished the difficult feat of enduring to the end of a long life while practicing effective SAL along much of the way.

Charlie and Muriel Pierson, of Alberta, Canada, are excellent examples of what Joseph Badaracco, Jr. describes as quiet leaders.

These men and women aren’t high-profile champions of causes, and don’t want to be. They don’t spearhead ethical crusades. They move patiently, carefully, and incrementally. They do what is right—for their organizations, for the people around them, and for themselves—inconspicuously and without casualties. I have come to call these people quiet leaders because their modesty and restraint are in large measure responsible for their impressive achievements. And since many big problems can only be resolved by a long series of small efforts, quiet leadership, despite its seemingly slow pace, often turns out to be the quickest way to make an organization—and the world—a better place. [1]

LAW 8:

Existential Growth cannot be given, traded for, or bought; it must be earned.

If you have enough money, you can buy any product or service. But, all the money and technology in the world won’t buy knowledge, skills, integrity, courage, compassion, patience, happiness, real friendship, or Existential Growth. Developing character and shaping your existence always has a price tag in time and effort, and the price can sometimes prove steep—even steeper than many are willing to pay.

This case study illustrates what diligent planning, focused effort, disciplined practice, self-sacrifice, and patience over a lifetime created for a Western Canadian couple from the Silent Generation. Members of the Silent Generation include persons born between 1925 and 1942. [2] This is the story of two exemplary self-action leaders who were born in the late 1920s at the very beginning of the Silent Generation. Since then, they have quietly gone about their business for nearly 90 years—with little fanfare, but much to show for their efforts. Throughout their lives, Charlie and Muriel Pierson have not only exercised effective quiet leadership, but outstanding Self-Action Leadership as well.

Charlie Pierson was born in Alberta, Canada, in the late 1920s. He was the youngest of 11 children. When he was 18 months old, his father died, and then later, at 14, Charlie lost his mother. Shortly before his mother’s death, while in the eighth grade, he quit his formal schooling for good. None of his older siblings were willing to take him in, leaving him alone with his grief and without shelter or opportunities for higher education.

Desperate for work, the 14-year-old homeless orphan saw an ad in the window of a lumber company. Pierson inquired about the job. The manager replied: “Kid, we need a man, not a boy.” Charlie tells what happened next:

"I told him I needed the job really bad as I had lost my mother and had nowhere to go; if he would just try me out, I would work all day for nothing. If he found I couldn’t stand up to the job, then he could let me go, but if I could do the work, then he would hire me. He consented and told me to be in to work at 8:00 the next morning. When I got to work the next morning, I found I was to work with the truck driver hauling cement on a flatbed truck which held 200 bags of cement from the railway cars at -------, Alberta to the sheds at ---------- Lumber Yard.

"Now, when we were loading the truck from the freight car, the truck driver gave me a real trial. He would carry one bag of cement (100 pounds) out to the truck from the freight car, go back in, pick up two bags, and carry them out. For me to prove I could do the job, I had to carry, bag for bag, with him. We did this all day from 8 in the morning until 5 that night. Boy, was I tired!! I went in to the manager and asked him if I had the job, and he said that he had to talk to the truck driver first and to wait around. The truck driver went in and talked to him. He then called me back in and told me I had a job because the driver told him he’d never worked with anyone better than I was."

With hard labor came challenges; his circumstances sometimes necessitated his working outside in temperatures as low as -50˚ below zero Fahrenheit. Charlie slept in a room with no heat, with a single buffalo robe to stay warm. During this difficult time in his life, he slowly succumbed to alcoholism, and developed smoking and gambling habits as well.

Charlie Pierson’s birth year kept him from being one of the youngest members of the World War II Generation, sometimes called the “G.I. Generation,” [3] or the “Greatest Generation” [4] by a few years, but he was just old enough to don a military uniform before the end of the War. After a failed attempt to enlist as an underage soldier (due to a failed health exam), he eventually enlisted in the Canadian Army at 17 in 1944. Charlie was discharged in 1946, without traveling abroad or seeing any action. He does not describe himself as an honorable soldier or person during this time in his life.

"During my time in the services, I was not the type of person that I am proud to write about… I had been drinking pretty heavily when I enlisted in the army, so it continued on, night after night."

Around this time, Charlie began to engage in serious self-examination [5] that led to some important adjustments in his life. One of the primary catalysts of these changes was Muriel Hawryluk—“the milk girl”—whom he met in 1946. Muriel caught his eye and inspired him to make positive changes in his behavior that would last a lifetime. According to Charlie, “Everybody was against us” getting married but “we didn’t care what other people said. We knew we loved each other and that was what mattered.” The two were wed on April 10, 1948.

"How I enjoyed being Charlie’s wife! I can’t forget the joy I experienced to be with Charlie 24 hours of the day. It was so important to me to marry the one I loved, but it was even more important to love the one I married. This made up for any inconvenience that came our way. We had no fridge, no cupboards, no utilities, and only a wood stove to cook on. We carried our water from Clifford’s well. We enjoyed it all."

Following their wedding, Charlie and Muriel got serious about what was important to them and what they wanted from life. Charlie decided to rekindle his religious faith and Muriel decided to join his church. While Charlie was not an alcoholic or gambling addict, he made the decision to put tobacco, alcohol, and gambling behind him for good after marrying Muriel. He and Muriel remained faithful to their church, their employment, their community, their family, and to each other for the rest of their lives. Along the way, they became models of self-sufficiency, selflessness, and good citizenship. They were not perfect—no self-action leader is—but amidst whatever mistakes they made along the way, they effectively personified what it means to be a successful self-action leader.

According to Charlie, “We had to work hard for what we got,” but, he adds, “I’m glad of it.” Life was not easy after they got married. Their accommodations, at best, were modest. He describes their first home in Alberta as a “two room house that wasn’t much to take a young beautiful girl to, but that’s all we had.” He recounts, “that year there were crickets by the billions. They would come through the cracks in the floor; they’d drop off the ceiling onto our bed at night; they were everywhere.”

From there, they moved to a larger city where they rented a couple of rooms from another family and shared a communal bathroom. Later, they lived with Muriel’s mother for a short period of time. Not wishing to make it a long-term arrangement, Charlie sold their car to build his family their own home.

With $1,075 from the sale of their car, they began work on their home. Charlie did most of the work himself, including digging out their basement. They continued to pursue their dream of having a place to call their own, despite Charlie breaking his nose with a hammer, and a blizzard flooding their house with snow. Although they struggled to keep warm that first winter, they continued to grow in their love and devotion to one another, and were surprisingly content in their difficult circumstances. Finally, after a herculean effort, and the near fatal birth of one of their daughter, the house was done.

Over the next 10 years, Charlie pursued a career in law enforcement, and he and Muriel had four more children. During this period of their life, Charlie and Muriel became increasingly dedicated to their faith, and Charlie remained firm in his decision to rid his life of tobacco, alcohol, and gambling.

One of the greatest indicators of Charlie and Muriel’s Self-Action Leadership was their desire to be self-reliant. This desire fueled Charlie’s ambition to build his wife and family a home.

The House that Charlie built in 1960 (top) and 2000 (bottom)

"Early in 1958, I saw a picture in the paper of the Home of the Week. I loved the home, brought it home, and said to Muriel, ‘Here’s your new home. What do you think of it?’ She just laughed at me. I said, ‘I am really serious. This will be your new home.’ I contacted her dad and bought a 50-foot lot south of our property for $600. On buying the lot, I proceeded to tear down the fence and dig up the rhubarb, and Muriel said, ‘What do you think you’re doing?’ I stated, ‘This is where you new home’s going to be, the one I showed you.’ I think now she’s taking me seriously. I got the building permit, hired the basement dug, and had the basement walls poured, and the sub-floor on. And from there I built the rest of the house by myself with limited help from different people."

When Charlie and Muriel built their first, there were only about seven houses visible in the surrounding vicinity. Over time, a large community sprung up that was eventually annexed by an even larger city. Fifty-five years after first starting their dream home, Charlie and Muriel are still living there.

Over the course of those five decades, they accomplished many things. Charlie served in law enforcement for 30 years before retiring in 1982.

In what little spare time he had, Charlie took up the hobby of rebuilding old cars. His achievements as a hobbyist culminated with his building two different recreational vehicles (RVs) he could use for family vacations. He had no formal training in auto mechanics, but doggedly pursued self-education on the subject. He persisted through whatever problems or obstacles that arose. Sometimes while working on an automotive project, he would go to bed without any idea how to proceed. When this would occur, he would pray for help and the inspiration would come—sometimes in the middle of the night—often leading him to get up and work until daybreak pursuing whatever ideas came, according to Charlie, as an answer to his prayers. Below is a series of pictures of a car that Charlie restored from start to finish.

Starting out...

All finished!

Charlie and Muriel’s self-reliance was made possible in part by their frugality. As newlyweds, Charlie told Muriel that, “two could live as cheap as one,” and he still believes it. If something needed mending or repairing, they usually managed to fix it themselves, thus saving the cost of hiring a repairman.

Rather than living lives primarily aimed at self-promotion or aggrandizement, the Piersons’ lives have been consistently aimed at contributing meaningfully to the well being of their marriage, family (they raised five children to adulthood), church, and community. Additionally, Charlie and Muriel donated a sizable portion of their personal time, effort, and money to their church.

Extended Pierson Family in 1998.

Presently, the Pierson’s have five children, 24 grandchildren, and nearly 60 great-grandchildren. The following picture was taken of their posterity at their 50th wedding anniversary.

Charlie’s journey through life has not always been easy—even after he transcended his difficult years after being orphaned. He dealt with many health problems over the course of his lifetime: repeated bouts with kidney stones, varicose veins, blood clots, glaucoma, hypoglycemia, and prostate issues—to name a few.

Muriel has faced her challenges as well, including her original family’s vehement disagreement with her decision to join Charlie’s church, the painful divorce of one of her sons, and the subsequent estrangement of several of her grandchildren. Through it all, they have managed to live long, and live well.

In their later years, they invested a great deal of love and time in making woodworking projects for all of their grandchildren.

They are tremendous models of “extraordinary ordinary people.” [6] Charlie and Muriel have remained devoted to their family in word and deed, and to each other as well. Rarely, if ever, have I observed a couple—especially of their age—who are more caring and devoted to each other. [7]


Next Blog Post: Friday, February 6, 2015 ~ SAL Case Study: The Fred & Marlene Hawryluk Story


[1] Badaracco, J.L., Jr. (2002) Leading Quietly: An Unorthodox Guide to Doing the Right Thing. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press. Pages 1-2.
[2] Strauss, W. & Howe, N. (1991). Generations: The History of America’s Future, 1584 to 2069. New York: Quill, Page 279.
[3] Ibid. Page 261.
[4] Brokaw, T. (1998). The Greatest Generation. New York, NY: Delta.
[5] Neck, C. P., & Manz, C. C. (2010). Mastering Self-Leadership: Empowering Yourself
for Personal Excellence (Fifth ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. See page 19.
[6] The title of Condoleezza Rice’s recent memoir about her growing up years with her parents. Rice, C. (2010) Extraordinary, Ordinary people: A Memoir of Family. New York, NY: Crown.
[7] Once scene in particular illustrates the sincerity of the love they still share, 65 years later. While visiting them recently in their Canadian home, I noticed how close the couple chose to sit next to each other. Charlie rested his left hand tenderly on Muriel’s right leg. Muriel rested her left hand gently on his arm. After 63 years of marital fidelity and devotion, it seemed they adored each other as much as ever.