Attorney played role in blazing environmental trail

Pete Veeder's first love was toy soldiers.

“Don't even ask how many,” said his wife of 48 years, Sybil Pickett Veeder of Oakland.

She knew before they married that the soldiers her husband started collecting as a boy were “his great love,” she said.

Peter Greig Veeder, a pioneering Pittsburgh environmental attorney, died of lung cancer on Monday, Jan. 13, 2014, in Pittsburgh. He was 72.

“He was an avid collector,” said Norm Flam, owner of The Toy Soldier Gallery in Ligonier. ”He truly enjoyed the art of the toy soldier.”

Mr. Veeder loved to paint watercolors of flowers and outdoor scenes, but only on vacations.

“No lawyer worth their salt paints at night,” his wife said.

A 1966 graduate of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, Mr. Veeder worked in the law department of U.S. Steel for four years before joining the law firm of Thorp Reed & Armstrong in 1970. His specialty was environmental law. He joined the firm at about the time the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act became laws.

“The EPA was a brand-new agency at that time,” said attorney Joseph Brendel, who worked with Mr. Veeder for about 30 years. “There were no regulations yet on issuing permits, so lawyers for the steel companies ‘negotiated from scratch' with the EPA.”

Those regulations became the standard that others followed.

Mr. Veeder, who liked to play squash and tennis, was named a partner at Thorp Reed & Armstrong in 1974, opening the firm's Washington office in the mid-1970s and serving as managing partner until the early 1980s, when he was elected to its executive committee for several terms.

He was a trustee for several nonprofit organizations, including St. Edmund's Academy, Visiting Nurses Association, The Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Museum of Art.

“He was Pittsburgh through and through,” said his son, Gerrit Veeder of Darien, Conn.

“He was a fair man; he had a lot of integrity,” his son said. “The lessons we learned from my father ... I hear them now as a parent.”

In addition to his wife, Sybil, and his son, Gerrit, he is survived by two daughters, Sybil Wilson of Burlington, N.C., and Hillary Dietz of Doylestown; seven grandchildren; and a brother, James Veeder Jr. of Brevard, N.C.

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday in Third Presbyterian Church, 5701 Fifth Ave., Shadyside. John A. Freyvogel Sons Inc. is in charge of arrangements.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, 4400 Forbes Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15213, Attention: D.F. Ellenberg; or St. Edmund's Academy, 5705 Darlington Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15217.

Craig Smith is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-380-5646 or csmith@tribweb.com.