To become a physician takes years of schooling, a lot of long hours, compassion for patients in need and a call to help others.

Wednesday is National Doctor Day, a day to celebrate doctors and the services those doctors provide to the community. One local doctor, and now his sons too, have been making Vicksburg better for 40 years.

Dr. Paul W. Bill Pierce III and his sons Dr. Paul Pierce IV and Dr. Sam Pierce are all physicians headquartered in their hometown of Vicksburg. Bill Pierce and Sam Pierce are internal medicine specialists who work at Medical Associates of Vicksburg, and Paul Pierce IV works at Merit Health River Region Medical Center as a cardiologist.

Bill Pierce said his older son Paul had always wanted to be a doctor, but it took his younger son, Sam, a little longer to land in the profession.

“They went into it by different directions I suppose, but the thing about it is they can’t say they didn’t know what they were getting into,” Bill Pierce said. “They can’t plead ignorance.”

He said both of his boys made rounds with him at the hospital while they were growing up and would sometimes hang around the emergency room. As for why they followed their dad’s footsteps to become doctors, he said he hadn’t really thought about it too much.

“I never really tried to analyze that,” Bill Pierce said. “It’s not unusual for children of doctors to be doctors, I’ve noticed that.”

Both Paul and Sam married women from Vicksburg and have three children each. All three families live near each other just as Bill Pierce and his wife lived across the street from his own parents while his sons were growing up.

“My wife and I have enjoyed having our boys here that way we can stay in touch with our grandchildren,” Bill Pierce said.

The tight-knit family has been serving Vicksburg for years, and Bill Pierce truly enjoys getting to help people in the community who have become lifelong friends.

“It’s nice taking care of people I know,” Bill Pierce said. “I still have several patients I’ve known all my life. It’s been a pleasure.”

He also enjoys getting to work with his sons, which make his job all the sweeter.

“It’s enough fun to keep me working,” Bill Pierce said.

Bill Pierce was an engineer before deciding to become a doctor. While moving up the ranks in the engineering world, Pierce discovered he was relegated to more paperwork and less actual work, which was something he was not interested in doing.

“What I saw was that in engineering the higher I got the less engineering I did,” Pierce said. “There’s a lot of personnel and paperwork. I just wanted to do the technical things. Being an internist, that’s all I do.”

Being an engineer was one factor that helped him chose his specialty.

“The deductive thought process in internal medicine is a lot like engineering,” Pierce said.

He said Dr. Briggs Hopson was a big influence in his decision to become a physician. Pierce and Hopson worked together in 412 Engineer Brigade, Pierce as a company commander and Hopson as a doctor.

“When I started thinking about going to medical school, Briggs encouraged me,” Pierce said. “He had a lot of influence on my life.”

He finished his residency in 1975 and came back to his hometown of Vicksburg to start practicing medicine.