Brian Franklin Pilgrim

The family of Brian Franklin Pilgrim are deeply saddened to announce his passing on August 16, 2024. 

Brian was born on July 6, 1963, in Laurel, Mississippi. He began his first employment at 11, harvesting peaches in the Mississippi countryside for 10 cents an hour. Brian would recall the small moments of joy he found in this job to his children, sharing stories with them about devouring fresh peaches and watermelons in the cool of the storeroom, wearing out an 8-track of The Eagles’ “Hotel California” in the car with his brother as they rode back and forth from the orchard, and once even out-picking the owner of the orchard. Brian would never be without work from thereafter, splitting his time between steady jobs or football and trips to the lake with his friends. Brian would go on to found his own pipeline construction company, Pilgrim Construction. His business would grow to service 26 states across the nation — success built on a reputation for safety, quality, and integrity. Brian himself would continue to work, often joining his men in the field to see projects through, or cooking steaks and sides for the crew after a job’s completion. In his free time, Brian was an avid hunter and fisher who loved to travel for his quarry, from hunting elk in Colorado to fishing for marlin with his wife in Costa Rica. His most beloved trophies were a set of turkeys — one each of the main North American varieties, including an Osceola he hunted in the jungles of Oaxaca. Brian is remembered by his friends as a man who never met a stranger. One story recounts Brian giving the entire contents of his wallet to an elderly couple at a Holiday Inn in Minnesota, after learning that they had lost their home in a fire the night before. Brian loved learning the stories of everyone he met, the same way he loved learning about the machinery, crops, flocks, herds, and geology he encountered as he followed the pipeline across America. He was a man who saw the same beauty in a piece of heavy equipment or the laid-back sides of an excavation as he saw in the petals of the sunflowers he planted every year to draw in the local fauna. His passing after long, hard-fought battle with acute myeloid leukemia is a loss his family will never cease to mourn, but Brian’s legacy was not one of sadness. 

His sense of duty and joy will continue on through those he leaves behind: his wife, Felicia, and his three children, Saige, Colby, and Logan. Brian is also survived by his son-in-law Michael, his daughter-in-law Sarah, Colby and Sarah’s sons Shiloh and Scout, his mother Lena, and his brother Bruce. He was preceded into Heaven by his late father, Tim Pilgrim. 

A memorial will be held for Brian at the Pilgrim Construction Offices in Heidelberg, MS, on September 14th, 2024. The family requests donations be sent to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in place of flowers. 

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