Kicking myself because it took my this long to find/implement it, but proves the adage of when you want to screw up big time, calla professional.
Have been peeved slightly since we moved becasue pinned topics always seemed to become unpinned for me and took forever to find again.
Of course there is a setting… 
Under user Preferences, Interface and then towrds the bottom.
Uncheck “Automatically unpin topics when I reach the bottom”
and save.
