David L. Peet supported his family with a career in food sales, but he was defined by his unpaid work as executive director of the Ligonier Highland Games, an officer of the Bethel Park Community Foundation and many lesser known projects.

"His career was incidental. He enjoyed it, but the family and our activities were much more important," said Virginia Peet, his wife. Mr. Peet, 81, of Bethel Park, died Thursday of ALS, known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

A native of Niagara Falls, N.Y., he attended Middlebury College for two years before U.S, Navy service permanently sidetracked his formal education. But the descendent of Scottish immigrants to Colonial America remained a student of history.

"We spent our honeymoon going around to Civil War battlefields," Mrs. Peet said. His fascination with Scottish culture pre-dated their 1955 marriage.

He spent much of his career with Sunkist Growers, which first sent him to Pittsburgh in 1965. He got involved with local Scottish culture, including dancing and drumming for the McDonald Pipe Band.

In 1969 he became executive director of the Ligonier Highland Games. He continued after a 1973 transfer to Altoona.

"We transferred around quite a bit with Sunkist, but we thought Pittsburgh was the greatest place in the world and we were determined to come back," she said.

They did so in 1989.

The Ligonier games were founded in 1959, with traditional sports including the caber, in which kilted men toss telephone poles. He added military re-enactments from many periods in Scottish history, dog shows featuring Scottish breeds and countless other activities. Each year the games opened with 300 bagpipers who could be heard miles away.

"It's truly like a visit to Brigadoon," he told the Post-Gazette in 1987. "We even have a footbridge that you walk across to get to the part of Idlewild Park where the games are. And, once across that bridge, it's hard -- even for people who were born in Scotland -- to believe that they aren't truly back in the land o' the heather and the kilt."

"He never wanted it to be the biggest games, but he wanted it to be the best," Mrs. Peet said.

"If he wanted to do something, he wanted to do it right. He didn't care if he got the credit or not."

That was the attitude he brought to Southminster Presbyterian Church in Mt. Lebanon, where he was an elder.

"He was the kind of guy that every pastor wants to have in the church, because when he says that he's going to do something, it got done," said the Rev. Daniel Merry, his pastor.

Mr. Peet coordinated an annual Scottish Sunday, loaning his pastor a kilt and leading a procession of bagpipers and drummers.

"He just glowed with joy on those days," Mr. Merry said.

But his faith ran deeper than his ethnic roots. He firmly believed Jesus' words that whatever his followers did to the poor, they did to him.

"To the very end, he was involved in every missions project that we have going on here," Mr. Merry said. That included helping Habitat for Humanity, supporting ministries in Malawi, and organizing volunteers to drive homeless families to the Interfaith Hospitality Network.

The Peets hosted international students. He served as a judge of elections and on the Bethel Park library board. As an officer of the Bethel Park Community Foundation, he helped officiate at the 1999 ribbon-cutting of its first major project, the Bethel Park Community Center.

The Peets loved canoeing on scenic rivers, and belonged to the Sylvan Canoe Club in Verona. But their active lifestyle ended due to perplexing problems with walking and standing. ALS was diagnosed in January.

But as it robbed of him of his strength, and ultimately his life, it never stole his joy, Mr. Merry said.

"Over the past few months, as so much was taken away from him, he would say that he could sit for the whole day and read. And he was content to do it. He was one of those people where, when life hands you lemons, you make lemonade," he said.

"Up until about three weeks ago he was in worship every week in his wheelchair. He was a fantastically faithful guy, right to the end."

In addition to his wife, he is survived by a brother, William, of Rochester, N.Y.; three daughters, Amy Shetrom of Osceola Mills, Clearfield County, Martha Kohl of Ozark, Ala., and Melinda Sage of Ambler, Montgomery County; and six grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday in Southminster Presbyterian Church, Mt. Lebanon. The Paul L. Henney Memorial Chapel of Bethel Park is in charge of arrangements. Gifts may be made to Southminster Presbyterian Church, 799 Washington Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15228 or the ALS Association, 416 Lincoln Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15209.

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