Piers LaFrance
Feb 4, 1993 -
Feb 17, 2025
With deepest sorrow we announce that Piers Anthony LaFrance, son of Ray and Laura LaFrance, passed away unexpectedly on Feb. 17, 2025, in Oakland, Calif. Piers was born in Anchorage on Feb. 4, 1993, and raised in Palmer, Alaska. After graduating from high school in 2011, Piers went on to play junior hockey in Washington, Montana, and California, where he fell in love with Northern California.
In Alaska, Piers worked construction as a member of the Laborers' Union Local 341 for Cruz Construction. His work and love for travel led him to live and work in various places throughout the United States working as a union operator in Seattle, Wash., and most recently in San Jose, Calif.
An incredibly gifted athlete, Piers grew up running, hiking, skiing and snowboarding, as well as playing soccer, baseball and hockey. He was a thrill seeker from a young age, engaging in freestyle skiing and rock climbing. He found his passion in the highly technical and skilled world of cliff diving. His love of cliff diving led him to travel and hike around both well known and remote areas of the Pacific Northwest, California, and Hawaii, performing acrobatic jumps from extreme heights. His fearlessness was both awe inspiring and terrifying to his family and friends.
Piers loved vibrant colors, loud music and dancing. He also liked to eat well and look good. He remains the only one of his siblings to be able to jump off 90-foot cliffs as well as flawlessly execute the moon walk. While he often expressed a desire to have intense colorful eyes like his brothers, his family loved Piers' dark brown eyes which seemed to be a window into his soul and he generously welcomed people into his world making many friends wherever he went. He was a larger-than-life kind of guy who seemed to demand more from it than others around him did. You felt more alive just being welcomed into his orbit. Like his brother Aidan, he was loyal, generous, as well as an exceptionally loving and affectionate son, brother, uncle and friend. He was also godfather to his little sister Lily, and nephew Cillian. The world is a dimmer place without him.
Piers is preceded in death by his brother, Aidan LaFrance; niece, Alexi Bickers; and cousins, Kenny Alcantra, Tracy and Colleen Spain and Dale Badger.
He is survived by his parents, Ray and Laura LaFrance; sisters, Terina, Jacqueline, Kathleen and Lily; brother, Sam; brother-in-law, Scot Irvine; sister-in-law, Elisabet Johannesdottir; nephews, Oliver, Adam, Miles, Owen, Cillian and Quinn; nieces, Evelyn and Madeleine; as well as many aunts, uncles, cousins and friends.
Thank you all for the outpouring of love and support. A celebration of his wonderful life is planned at the Government Peak Recreation Area Chalet on Saturday, July 25, 2026, at 3 p.m.
