South Frontage Road from Indiana Avenue to Halls Ferry Road is getting a new name.

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen on Monday approved renaming the road Dr. Bill Pierce Memorial Frontage Road in honor of Vicksburg physician Dr. Paul Williamson “Bill” Pierce III, who died in 2021. No date for the renaming has been set, pending passage of a local and private, or special bill, allowing the name change. South Frontage Road is a state road.

Pierce is the second doctor to have a street named for him. In 2019, the board named a section of Mulberry Street between Veto and Depot streets Dr. Briggs Hopson Boulevard.

Pierce was born in Oxford and graduated in 1958 from Carr Central High School in Vicksburg. He received a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and worked as a hydraulic engineer at the Vicksburg District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers until 1968 when he changed career paths and attended medical school at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

He completed a residency in internal medicine in 1975 and began his medical practice at the Vicksburg Medical Center the same year. Pierce practiced internal medicine in Vicksburg for 46 years and founded Medical Associates of Vicksburg in 2008. His sons, Paul Pierce IV and Sam Pierce, are also doctors.

In an Aug. 25, 2021 article on Pierce, associate Dr. Dan Edney said, “He’s done far more for Vicksburg than most people know. He’s been a wonderful influence in my life.”

“I never really did think of anything else I wanted to be than to be a physician and follow in his footsteps,” his son Paul said. “He taught us the importance of giving back to the community and practicing medicine in a small town is one of the best ways to do that.”