Nicholas "Nick" Piesco

Date Of Birth: September 15, 1946
Date Deceased: February 7, 2019
Age at Death: 72
Cause of Death: Cancer
City: Tampa
State: FL
Survived By: His wife, Mercedes Navarro Piesco

Notification provided by Sandra DeHay Meetre

Obituary below, from Nick's wife, forwarded by Lynn Anderson Dewhurst:

Nicholas Peter Piesco was born in Havre de Grace, Maryland on September 15, 1946 to Nicholas Louis and Martha Muller Piesco. He grew up in Hialeah, Florida, and graduated from Hialeah High School in 1964. He lettered in swimming, making lifelong friendships with his teammates.

Nick attended Miami-Dade Junior College and transferred to the University of South Florida in Tampa, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in biology and education and a master’s degree in botany. He met his wife Mercedes in the USF library, and they married on campus just a few months later in December 1970.

Nick and Mercedes moved on to Gainesville, where Nick earned a master’s degree in agriculture from the University of Florida. Their son, Nicholas Austin, was born in 1976; and in 1979, Nick earned a Ph.D. in anatomy.

He was given a two-year post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Connecticut Medical Center in Farmington, where the whole family experienced their first snow.

Nick spent his entire 30-year academic career as a professor at the University of Pittsburgh, where he taught head and neck anatomy at the dental school and assisted with gross anatomy at the medical school. “Dr. P” adored his students, who named him Teacher of the Year.

Daughter Jillian was born in Pittsburgh in 1981, and the family resided in Penn Hills for 30 years. They were members of Zion Lutheran Church and continue to enjoy the friendships they made there to this day.

Nick was blessed with two most loving sisters, Nancy Skilling of Clayton, Georgia, and Pamela Piesco of Fort Myers, Florida. Their families were so dear to him. Nick enjoyed the love of many aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and cousins, and had an amazing number of friends.

He had vast interests and hobbies: archery; woodworking, woodturning, and wood carving; and weekly Italian lessons at the Italian Club of Tampa. He especially enjoyed his time volunteering at the Florida Aquarium, where he won Volunteer of the Year honors twice.

We feel great gratitude for his life and love. He lives on in all our hearts, and the world is diminished by his absence. We thank everyone for all the love and support we received in his final days.

Memorial donations will be directed to the Florida Aquarium to support camperships and scholarships.