History buffs and Peters residents will get a chance next week to hear from Reed Day, a local historian, lawyer, and, according to one former client, "one of the finest school solicitors in the state," as he recounts his 37 years as solicitor for the Peters Township School District.

Mr. Day will be the featured speaker Wednesday at the Peters Library from 1 to 2:30 p.m.

Mr. Day plans to discuss his adventures as solicitor, many of which are chronicled in his memoirs, "A Life at Law," published two years ago. The Peters resident also published three other books, including two historical texts involving the Cumberland Road and the Whiskey Rebellion.

The third book, titled "Two Families," documents his family's history, along with significant points in local and U.S. history.

"It took me 20 years to write this," Mr. Day recalls.

In his memoirs, which will be available for order from the library, Mr. Day highlights some of the more sensitive cases he handled for Peters.

His most memorable, and perhaps most successful, started in May 1984 when cracks started appearing in the McMurray Middle School and adjoining elementary school. It was mine subsidence due to flooding at Consolidation Coal Co.'s Montour Mine. Within two weeks, the middle school was abandoned, and by the following year, the Elm Grove Elementary School, also situated above the mine, began seeing the same damage.

When the district filed a claim for damages with its insurance carrier, The Hartford Accident and Indemnity Co., the company refused to pay, citing a clause in the policy specifically excluding damage from earth movement, such as earthquakes and landslides.

The district appealed, but in the meantime, began construction on a new $10 million middle school while busing students to nearby schools in the Bethel Park and Mt. Lebanon school districts.

Mr. Day argued that the damage was not an "act of God," as specified in the policy, but caused by man. The issue was bandied about in the courts for the next several years, and was eventually ended with an $8 million settlement in favor of the district.

Then there was the "Tippee Canoe" incident.

In June 1995, he and his wife Chris returned home from a white-water river trip during which the canoe he and his wife were aboard flipped over. His answering machine was blinking furiously, and within minutes, Mr. Day learned the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the school district and was seeking to prevent students from reciting an invocation prayer at the high school's graduation ceremony, only a day away.

Speaking in a conference call with an ACLU lawyer, a judge, and the school board president, Mr. Day forged a compromise in which no prayer would be read aloud during the graduation ceremony.

The next day, students passed out copies of the prayer to their friends and read it during the ceremony anyway.

Mr. Day lost his job as solicitor in December 1995, and former Peters Superintendent Howard Jack said the district made a mistake letting Mr. Day go.

"I would say that was a serious error," said Mr. Jack, who was superintendent from 1965 to 1983.

He said there wouldn't be a Peters School District today without Mr. Day.

In 1960, the state Department of Education passed a reorganization act, ordering thousands of districts to consolidate. If a district didn't have at least 2,500 students, it couldn't stand alone.

Peters was to merge with Ringgold or Canon-McMillan school districts until Mr. Day and Mr. Jack presented their case before the state Senate Education Committee, arguing that the increased population trend in Peters would soon put it over the top.

"We showed them that we could reasonably expect 2,500 students," Mr. Day said.

Peters won the argument, and now has a student population of about 4,000, which increases each year.

For reservations to Mr. Day's presentation, call the Peters Township Library at 724-941-9430.

First Published: June 15, 2007, 12:15 p.m.