Hillyard activist Pearce dead at 73

It may be a little quieter in Hillyard this week.

Tiny, tenacious Celina Pearce, a community activist and grandmother, died Monday night.

“She was a tiger,” said Joyce Jones, a close friend. “If it was time to do something, she’d say, ‘What are you sitting there for? Let’s get busy.’”

Born in Costa Rica, the 73-year-old Pearce left deep brushstrokes in the low-income neighborhood in northeast Spokane.

An active member of St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, Pearce led dozens of community projects in the past three decades, ranging from efforts to save a century-old school bell to advocating for better parks and a community center for neighborhood children and families.

“She was always thinking about other people,” said her husband, Paul Pearce, an architectural illustrator. “What amazed me was that someone from a foreign country could come here and get so much accomplished.”

The Pearces moved to Hillyard in the 1970s. They raised two children, William and Diana, and took notice of other neighborhood children who seemed to lack attention and oversight.

“Some of these kids, they are not taught any better,” Pearce told a Spokesman-Review reporter last month. “We need to give them empowerment so they have some basis. Who are the youth looking up to?”

Pearce found a host of challenges in Hillyard, one of the poorest neighborhoods in the country, according to U.S. census data. The neighborhood accounts for more child abuse and neglect referrals than any other in Spokane.

That didn’t deter Pearce, who never learned to drive but relied on her husband to transport her to community meetings. Once there, she led the charge.

“She was like a bird dog,” said Kimbre Vega, recreation supervisor at Northeast Youth Center, located a block from Pearce’s home. “She stayed on it until she saw things through.”

Educated as a teacher, Pearce once worked as a records clerk for the Spokane Police Department. She remained active at a broad range of levels in Hillyard: She served as a founding board member at the Northeast Community Center. She helped revive a summer festival in Hillyard. In her later years, she kept tabs on Shaw Middle School students from the windows of her turquoise bungalow, standing guard over her immaculate flowers.

“Celina was a very strong advocate and protector of the community center,” said Jean Farmer, executive director of the Northeast Community Center Association, which began in 1982. “She gave us the basis for our vision for the center.”

With her health declining, Pearce continued her persistent advocacy, resorting to rallying telephone calls.

“My husband used to answer the phone and laugh. He’d say, ‘It’s the mayor of Hillyard for you,’ ” Jones said. “She was always so busy. She never stopped.”

One of Pearce’s successes was a skate park that opened despite initial concerns from other neighbors.

“Nobody wanted that skate park,” Jones said. “Nobody wanted to bring the wrong kind of people in. But now it’s beautiful. There are kids there all the time.”