Bud Pierce, MD, Ph.D.

Dr. Bud Pierce is a pioneering figure in cancer care in the Willamette Valley. He is highly regarded by patients and peers, known for his commitment to excellence, and driven by the constant desire to learn more. Dr. Pierce offers each patient the highest quality care.

Bud grew up as part of a close-knit family in a farming community outside an Air Force Base where his father served as an enlisted airman. Dr. Pierce has always been an adventurer who relishes new and difficult challenges. After his second year of medical school, he took a leave of absence from graduate school. Six years later, he graduated with a Ph.D. in experimental pathology from UCLA.

During that time, he wanted to serve in the military; he wanted to find out if he was tough enough to be a Marine. So he enlisted and went to boot camp, graduated, and served as an active Marine Reservist during his six years of graduate school.

Later in life, having decided his political party had given up in Oregon, Dr. Pierce decided to run for governor. With nothing more than his experience in medical politics, and having never run for a political office, he sought and won his party’s primary in a contested election. Then he went on to give a good challenge to an incumbent governor who had spent more than 25 years in politics.

“I am a fierce advocate for my patients, and I do everything in my power to help them. I seek to heal my patients using the latest scientific advances, and when healing is not possible, to always relieve pain and suffering. This is a physician’s duty, and I will fulfill my duty to my patients. It is my greatest honor to be a physician, and to care for my patients.”Bud Pierce, MD, Ph.D.

Dr. Pierce is, and has been a member, and a leader, of numerous medical organizations including the American College of Physicians, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American Society of Hematology, the American Cancer Society, the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute, the Salem Cancer Institute, the Salem Cancer Committee, the Salem Hospital Foundation, the Oregon Medical Association and Foundation, and the Marion-Polk County Medical Society and Foundation. He has been recognized for this work with many awards including the American Cancer Society’s Community Service Award, the American College of Physician’s Howard P Lewis Distinguished Service Award, the Oregon Medical Association’s Physician of the Year Award, the Marion/Polk County Physician Achievement Award.

Dr. Pierce has always felt lucky in life, but his greatest fortune occurred when he met his wife to be, Selma, at UCLA, where she was a dental student, and he was a MD/Ph.D. student. They have been happily married for more than 35 years and have two adult children. Dr. Pierce and Selma believe that “to whom much is given, much is expected” and so both have served many charitable causes in our community and state. For their work, they were awarded Salem’s First Citizen award, and were recognized by the Oregon State Senate via Senate Concurrent Resolution 4 in the 2011 legislative session

Dr. Pierce’s lifetime dream, from his earliest childhood memory, was to become a doctor. With a medical career that now spans more than four decades, he has cared for thousands of patients. Great teachers, all out effort, and caring for all those patients have taught Dr. Pierce the art and the science of medicine.

William (Bud) Pierce, MD is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in:

• Oncology (cancer)
• Hematology (blood disorders)
• Internal Medicine