Judge Ruggero J. Aldisert is the author of numerous law books, but his latest offering has more to do with his experience in Carnegie than with case studies.

Judge Aldisert, 85, is a senior judge on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He said he was compelled to write the 450-page memoir, "Road to the Robes: A Federal Judge Recollects Young Years and Early Times," because, "I felt I had a story to tell."

The word memoir might be a bit misleading, because the judge has not retired. Judge Aldisert assumed senior status at the end of 1986, a year before he moved to Santa Barbara, Calif., for health reasons. He participates through video conference.

The book details how his upbringing in Carnegie, which was home to people of many nationalities, formed the judge's character and outlook, which subsequently influenced some of his legal opinions.

The missive covers a 50-year period, starting with the judge's birth in November 1919 and ending when President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed him to the federal court in 1968.

"I love Carnegie and I have a good memory," he said, noting that tales of his childhood years in Carnegie occupy the first third of the book. "You can take the boy out of Carnegie, but you can't take Carnegie out of the boy."

Bringing copies of his memoir with him, Judge Aldisert mesmerized a crowd of more than 100 people, including a contingent of judges and friends, borough residents and officials last Friday at the newly renovated reception room at the Andrew Carnegie Free Library on Beechwood Avenue.

He pointed out that his background is different from that of most appellate judges who earned their experience by working for large corporations. Judge Aldisert, instead, learned about life and the law by serving as a major in the Marines during World War II, practicing law in Carnegie for 14 years, serving for 23 years as an adjunct law professor at the University of Pittsburgh, and sitting for seven years on the bench of Allegheny County Common Pleas Court.

Most important, however, were things he learned in his hometown as a young boy.

The son of an Italian immigrant father and a first-generation Italian mother, Judge Aldisert said his earliest memory was standing in the front yard of his Grandview Avenue home with his mother and brother. He was 3 years old, and his mother had her arms protectively encircled around her two sons.

It seems Italians were new to that area of town, and some members of the Ku Klux Klan were objecting to their presence.

"There was no question these people were our neighbors," Judge Aldisert recalled.

He also remembers a Klan-sponsored "Karnegie Day" on Aug. 25, 1923, which resulted in the death of a Klansmen and a subsequent riot in the town. He estimates that 20,000 to 30,000 Klansmen were in Carnegie that day.

Among his other early memories are watching miners walk down the street with pails and raccoon eyes after working 12-hour shifts. At least one coal mine, on Grant Street, existed in those days.

Judge Aldisert was educated in Carnegie's public school system, where he attended the Washington and Harding schools before graduating from Carnegie High School. His classmates included children of many ethnic backgrounds, such as Italian, Irish, German and Polish.

He remembered times when Carnegie was a vibrant place, with stores and professional offices open on Saturday nights. And then there was the Depression, and the soup kitchen operated by Holy Souls Church, an Italian-based parish founded in a livery stable on Mary Street in 1923.

"Growing up in this mining and mill town taught me the values of cultural understanding," he said.

For example, after Judge Aldisert opened his law practice in Carnegie in 1947, he counted Klan members among his clients.

Judge Aldisert was chief judge of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which hears cases from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and the Virgin Islands, from 1984 to 1986.

Besides attending the library reception, Judge Aldisert had another good reason to be in town last week.

On Saturday, the Italian Sons and Daughters of America celebrated its national 75th anniversary here. Judge Aldisert's father, John Aldisert, was the organization's first president. The judge served as ISDA president from 1954 to 1968, but stepped down after he was appointed to the Court of Appeals so that he wouldn't have to recuse himself from cases that involved similar organizations.

"Road to the Robes: A Federal Judge Recollects Young Years and Early Times" is available through www.amazon.com and www.borders.com. Carnegie's Andrew Carnegie Free Library has several copies, too.