Former Brookside Lumber president, chairman dies at 102
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Peter Edwards Jr. loved golf, notching his last hole-in-one at the age of 87.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Peter Edwards Jr. relaxes in his office at Brookside Lumber. He worked until retiring at the age of 99.
Peter Seddon Edwards Jr. had a few pearls of wisdom he liked to share: Always do your best, no matter what you are doing, and do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Those beliefs served the Brookside Lumber & Supply Co. owner well throughout his long life, one in which he worked until the age of 99.
The Peters Township man, who lived in Bethel Park for many of his years, died June 13 at the age of 102.
“My dad was awesome,” said his daughter, Susan Means of Bethel Park. “He was amazing. Everyone loved him.”
Edwards was born January 2, 1921. His family lived in Dormont and Brookline until moving to Bethel Park in 1924.
His father, Peter Seddon Edwards Sr., started the lumber company across the street from the family’s home in 1926 and also ran a construction company, P.S. Edwards Co.
The younger Edwards worked in the family contracting business for a time, but soon joined the lumber business. Within a few years, he was running the company.
Edwards became president of Brookside Lumber in the 1950s and chairman of the board in the 1980s, working until November 2020, when he retired at age 99. He later became a distributor for BG Products Inc., which produces products to maintain vehicles, selling his distributorship at age 95.
He displayed business acumen at an early age with the purchase of his first car while a student at Colgate University. A fellow student was having trouble getting his car started and said he would sell it for “two bits.”
“My dad reached in his pocket and gave him a quarter,” his daughter said with a hearty laugh about the successful transaction.
Edwards enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps as soon as he was of age, flying 49 missions as a bomber escort. To be eligible to fly, however, he had to have surgery to correct a deviated septum at Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh, where he met his first wife, Ruth Hay, who was one of his nurses.
The couple married March 17, 1944, in the chapel at Spence Field in Moultrie, Ga. They remained married until her death in 1999.
In 2013, at the age of 92, he married Adeline “Tootsie” Huffman of McMurray.
“He promised her 10 good years, which was completed April 12,” his daughter said.
Edwards was committed to his Bethel Park community. He was a member of the Bethel Kiwanis Club from the early 1950s until 1989, serving three terms as president; was a founding member of the Bethel Park Community Foundation; and served on the Bethel Park School District Bond Authority, and Bethel Park Planning and Zoning Commission.
Edwards also was one of the founding members of the Bethel Park Board of Trade, which later became the Bethel Park Chamber of Commerce.
He was the featured speaker at Bethel Park’s Memorial Day celebration in 2016.
Edwards also was a golf aficionado, taking up the sport at the age of 15. He notched his last hole in one at the age of 97 at the fifth hole (121 yards) of St. Clair Country Club.
“Getting a hole-in-one is mostly luck,” Edwards said at the time. “More important to me is the ability to shoot my age. My goal, and it’s a constant one every time I go out onto the course, is to shoot age or better.”
He did that an eye-popping 103 times.
Edwards had four children, 12 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren.
Visitation will be held from 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 p.m. Monday in Salandra Funeral and Cremation Services Inc., 304 West Pike St., Canonsburg.
Memorial services will be held July 9 in Bethel Presbyterian Church, 2999 Bethel Church Road, Bethel Church Road, Bethel Park. Interment with full military honors will take place in the National Cemetery of the Alleghenies, Cecil Township.