In December 2010, the Conquer Cancer Foundation (formerly The ASCO Cancer Foundation^®) received a generous donation from the trust of William D. “Bill” Piety, which will support a 2011 Young Investigator Award in cholangiocarcinoma, as well as a future Young Investigator Award. The $100,000 gift was facilitated by William Piety’s brother, Robert Piety, who serves as the successor trustee of the William D. Piety Living Trust.

William “Bill” Piety, a petroleum geologist from Colorado, died of complications from cholangiocarcinoma on October 29, 2010. In his trust, he requested that a donation be made to cancer research. Robert Piety researched various nonprofit organizations and discovered that the Conquer Cancer Foundation already had a mechanism for supporting disease-specific research through its Grants and Awards Program.

“A Modern-Day John Muir”

Born in 1947, William Piety grew up in southern California, primarily in the San Diego area. From an early age he exhibited a great interest in the beauty of nature and the importance of protecting it. “Our parents wanted us to be familiar with nature,” Robert Piety said. “We would go to the Natural History Museum in San Diego, go outside to catch scorpions, keep tarantulas as pets. We loved the beach and the sea life. Every summer we would go up into the Sierra Mountains and camp. It all got Bill very interested in nature.”

William Piety attended the University of Redlands in California and earned an advanced degree in geology from the University of Houston, and went on to work in petroleum geology in the Gulf of Mexico and, later, the Rocky Mountains.

He was a member of the Colorado Mountain Club, a supporter of The Nature Conservancy, and an amateur nature photographer. An avid hiker, William Piety had climbed all of Colorado’s 55 “14ers” (mountains with summit elevations of 14,000 feet or higher). He also funded a youth wildland stewardship program in Colorado to educate young people about the importance of conservation. His brother called him a “modern-day John Muir,” evoking the naturalist who founded the Sierra Club in 1892.

He was an active participant in the Denver Gem and Mineral Guild (DGMG; for which he served a term as president) and the Lake George Gem and Mineral Club (LGGMC). John Rakowski, the current president of LGGMC, first met William Piety in their shared field of petroleum geology in the early 1980s. Their business relationship developed into a friendship; Mr. Rakowski recalled enjoyable times spent digging together for the topaz, amazonite, and smoky quartz common to Colorado and identifying the birds in the area. “Bill’s knowledge of birds and bird calls was amazing,” he said.

Keith Sheel met William Piety though the Littleton Gem and Mineral Guild and later the DGMG. “Bill and I were both rock hounds,” he said. “In 2006, we dug a pocket of amazonite and those don’t come often. Pockets are voids where crystals formed millions of years ago, and if you get into one you can find specimen-grade materials. This was only the second one I got into in 30 years.”

William Piety shared his enthusiasm for gems and minerals with other collectors. “He was a great person—he liked to help other diggers and get the kids interested, so that we’ll have some rock hounds and geology scientists down the road,” Mr. Sheel said.

Mr. Rakowski noted that “Bill was a private person, with a wicked sense of humor. I found him to be very trustworthy, straightforward, and honest. His handshake was worth more than all the paper in the world. He honored what he said. It’s tough to find people like that.”

A Legacy for Nature, Humans, Research

In addition to cholangiocarcinoma research, bequests from the William D. Piety Living Trust will endow a scholarship in environmental science at the University of Redlands and protect a unique botanical area in Colorado, to be administered by The Nature Conservancy. His legacy also lives on in the Piety Claim, a protected 20-acre claim near Deckers, Colorado, for DGMG to conduct the collection of mineral specimens.

“Wealth didn’t impress him that much, and he didn’t need a lot to keep himself happy,” said Robert Piety. “Bill wanted to leave a legacy that would have an impact on nature and humans, and I think he’d be very happy to see how the programs he’s funded progress—to see students get an education in environmental protection or a young medical professional start a career in cancer research.”

Generally in good health, it came as a shock to William Piety and his loved ones when he was diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma in 2010. Mr. Sheel said, “Bill showed a lot of courage during the last eight months of his life, after he found out what he had and that it couldn’t be cured. He tried chemo one time and it put him down for about two weeks, so he said, ‘To heck with this, I’m going to enjoy what’s left.’ He was a very courageous person.”

“In addition to nature, [Bill] realized that the efforts of humans to better their lives in proactive ways needed support. He was involved with Doctors Without Borders and Habitat for Humanity,” said Robert Piety in a letter to the Foundation. “His experience with cancer brought him focus and a desire to help with cancer research.”

The Conquer Cancer Foundation is honored to be the recipient of this generous gift.

Foundation Supports Wide Range of Cancer Research, Including Rare Cancers

With the support of its many individual and organizational donors, the Conquer Cancer Foundation Grants and Awards Program is able to inject significant funding into the oncology research community—over $10 million in 2010 alone—with much of it focused on providing career-launching early funding to young oncologists.

An additional benefit to the strength and breadth of the Foundation’s grant portfolio is the support it can provide for research into rare cancers like cholangiocarcinoma.

“Unlike many oncology grantmakers, our Young Investigator Award and Career Development Award programs support research in all areas of oncology, including rare cancers,” said Eileen Melnick, Director of the Grants and Awards Program. “Our interest is in the merit of the project and the career development of the recipient. Since we receive such a diverse range of high-quality applications, we are happy to fund projects in rare cancer types that may have had a hard time finding funding elsewhere.”

“It is especially rewarding when we are able to match a recipient working in a rare cancer type with a donor interested in supporting research in that particular cancer type, as we have been able to do for William D. Piety Living Trust as well as the Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation,” Ms. Melnick said.