Devoted longtime solicitor to South Hills Area COG

WILLIAM G. BOYLE | Aug. 25, 1933 - Oct. 9, 2018

An “astute legal scholar” who loved the intricacies of the law, William G. “Bill” Boyle spent nearly 60 years representing local governments and municipalities.

“He could talk to you about anything, whether it was rock salt or municipal law,” said his daughter Megan Boyle of Evanston, Ill. “He just truly enjoyed it. He was the typical Irish litigator — very well-spoken, very thoughtful and very intelligent.”

And retirement wasn’t in her father’s vocabulary. He continued working into his 80s, including an amazing 44 years as the solicitor for the South Hills Area Council of Governments.

But a diagnosis earlier this year of glioblastoma — the same aggressive form of brain cancer that killed Arizona Sen. John McCain — changed all of that.

Mr. Boyle, 85, died Oct. 9, surrounded by loved ones in Evanston, where he moved several months ago to be closer to his family. Three of his four children went to the University of Notre Dame and made their homes in Illinois.

“He had a great summer in Illinois with his family and a lot of his grandchildren,” Ms. Boyle said. “But Pittsburgh was really his town. He spent his life there and everything about Pittsburgh was really important to him. It took a diagnosis like that to get my dad out of Pittsburgh. We wanted to be together.”

Mr. Boyle grew up in Brookline and graduated as a tuition student from Mt. Lebanon High School in 1951. He went on to John Carroll University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in pre-law in 1955. Three years later, he obtained his law degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, where he served on the school’s Law Review.

He met Maureen Entress at Sully’s Dance Hall in Brentwood in 1951, pleading with her to add him to her dance card. He was aiming for the so-called “Moonlights” — the slow dances, his daughter said.

“He was very persistent,” she said.

The couple were married in August 1957 and made their home in Upper St. Clair for many years.

For the first 31 years of his legal career, Mr. Boyle worked at Meyer, Unkovic & Scott, including as a partner in the Downtown firm. He also worked briefly for Riley & DeFelice before beginning a solo practice.

Mr. Boyle served as solicitor for several South Hills municipalities over the years, including Castle Shannon in the 1960s, Brentwood in the 1970s, South Park in the 1980s and Laurel Mountain in Westmoreland County in the late 1980s.

He also was elected president of the Pennsylvania Bar Institute and the Academy of Trial Lawyers of Allegheny County.

But it was his work with the South Hills Area Council of Governments, or SHACOG, that defined Mr. Boyle’s career. He started as solicitor even before the 1973 formation of the group — a consortium of 22 municipalities that join to make purchases and cooperate in other ways.

“Bill actually did the legal work to incorporate the COG,” said Stanley “Lou” Gorski, executive director of the group. “He helped to design the purchasing alliance and provided guidance with respect to our procedures. He was the only solicitor we ever had.”

Mr. Boyle was devoted to the organization, Mr. Gorski said, often working beyond his retained hours without charge. One exception was during a contract dispute with a former vendor, during which he prevented the issue from reaching the courtroom, Mr. Gorski said.

“He very rarely charged for additional time,” Mr. Gorski said. “But we got involved in a particularly contentious situation with an old road salt vendor that nearly resulted in litigation. Bill’s involvement resulted in a very good settlement.”

Mr. Boyle remained solicitor of SHACOG until 2017, when he retired.

Ms. Boyle said the family had happy memories of their vacation home on Deep Creek Lake and of the bowling league Mr. Boyle started more than 30 years ago for students at the Pathfinder School for disabled students in Bethel Park, where his daughter Ann Boyle, of Upper St. Clair, was a student.

In 2013, Mr. Boyle was recognized with a Jefferson Award for his work in managing the league, which met every Sunday and held an annual Christmas party.

“He … was sort of a father figure, I think, for some of the bowlers,” Ms. Boyle said.

In addition to his wife and daughters, Mr. Boyle is survived by another daughter, Erin McCune of Highland Park, Ill.; a son, William E. Boyle of Lake Forest, Ill.; a sister, Bernadette Delach of Moon; a brother, Robert Boyle of Marco Island, Fla.; and 10 grandchildren. He was preceded in death by a sister, Barbara Wikert, and a brother, Bernie Boyle.

The funeral was Saturday.