Tom Lamb, an Irish Catholic immigrant’s son from the West End who rose to become leader of the state Senate Democrats in the 1970s, the University of Pittsburgh’s chief lobbyist for a dozen years and Gov. Robert P. Casey’s point man for legislative affairs, died at home in Mt. Lebanon on Thursday.

He was 92.

A Beechview lawyer in his younger days, he was recruited from private practice in 1958 by the late David L. Lawrence to run for the state House of Representatives when the Pittsburgh mayor was elevated to governor.

A “graduate” of the Lawrence Democratic machine, as one newspaper described him in the 1970s, he served in the House for eight years and then eight more in the state Senate, the last four as Senate majority leader.

He left in 1974, saying he was taking a “sabbatical,” but he never really quit Harrisburg.

“I like politics and I’m proud to be a politician,” he said at the time.

He became Pitt’s top lobbyist in 1976 and in 1987 went to work for Mr. Casey, an old friend, to push through Mr. Casey’s stalled legislative agenda.

A skilled practitioner of the meet-and-greet, Mr. Lamb’s reputation was one of fairness and compromise, and he was respected for his ability to get along with his Republican counterparts without resorting to browbeating or insult.

But he was also a party loyalist, keeping the Democrats united in 1970 after they took control of the Senate for the first time since the 1930s.

During his time as majority leader, he carried the ball for Gov. Milton Shapp’s programs, many of them unpopular. He was the key figure in settling the state budget crises of the early 1970s, according to news accounts of the time.

“I’d say he was focused on getting things done,” said his son, Tom Lamb Jr. of Mt. Lebanon, a senior vice president at PNC Bank. “He certainly mastered the art of political compromise but he also mastered the art of keeping a coalition together.”

Mr. Lamb, who lived in Beechview until moving to Mt. Lebanon in 1975, was an old-school politician in that he sought every opportunity to remain visible in his hometown community, his son said.

“He was someone who believed that he needed to be out in his district on a regular basis,” Tom Lamb said. “He was out and about — he felt life was a contact sport and you had to get out and engage with people.”

During his time in the General Assembly, Mr. Lamb was involved in the passage of many bills benefiting the environment, education and government reform. In the realm of conservation, he had a hand in creating laws that regulated polluted streams, mine subsidence and strip mines.

He was especially active in education, where he was a champion of converting the former state teacher colleges into state colleges, which later became the State System of Higher Education. In the early 1970s, he supported the creation of the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency.

“He saw education as the way out of poverty,” said his son.

He was also involved in funneling more money to inner-city schools, establishing the community college program and converting the University of Pittsburgh from a private school to a state-related university, saving it from bankruptcy.

By 1974, when he was 51, he said he’d had enough and would not seek re-election, telling the news media that he looked forward to spending more time with his family.

“After 16 years, I have come to the conclusion that realistically I have made whatever contributions were in me to make,” he said.

But he stayed in politics, taking a newly created job for a short time as special counsel to the president pro tem of the Senate. He was also considered for a seat on the Public Utility Commission but lost out in a public battle between Mr. Shapp and the Senate. When Mr. Lamb was in the running for that post, several organizations denounced him, including Concerned Taxpayers of Allegheny County, which said Mr. Lamb was not suited for the job because as a legislator he had voted for tax increases and for “every legislative salary increase that came along.”

A Pitt trustee since 1971, he was appointed chief lobbyist for the school in 1976, a post that also drew criticism in the news media because he and Pitt initially refused to disclose his salary as assistant vice chancellor for government affairs. (After much negative coverage in the papers, he revealed the figure to be $41,000.)

He remained in that position until Mr. Casey became governor in 1987 and, finding himself stymied in the General Assembly, tapped Mr. Lamb as his secretary of legislative affairs.

“I decided I wanted to do one more big thing in my life,” Mr. Lamb, then 65, explained when he took the post.

He served until 1991.

Born in 1922 on the North Side, Mr. Lamb grew up in Elliott with three sisters and a brother, the children of James Lamb, a rail yard clerk, and Agnes Lamb, an Irish immigrant. After graduating from high school in 1940, he was working when World War II broke out and enlisted in the Navy. He served from 1942 to 1946, much of it as a lieutenant aboard a supply ship in the Pacific. When he came home, he went to Duquesne University and then its law school, graduating in 1952 and going into private practice.

He and his wife, Barbara Joyce Lamb, married in 1957 and raised their family in Beechview and later Mt. Lebanon.

In his private life, he particularly enjoyed a summer home in Somerset County owned by his wife’s family, and he loved music. He’d always enjoyed singing — “Danny Boy” was his favorite, he said — and in his ’60s he took up the banjo. His son said he played “badly but enthusiastically,” but performed with the Pittsburgh Banjo Club until his mid-80s.

Throughout his life, he remained true to his Irish heritage and his religion, even in old age kneeling to say prayers before bed each night.

“His Catholic faith was central to everything about him,” said his son.

Besides Tom, Mr. Lamb is survived by sons Jim Lamb of Dormont, Pittsburgh City Controller Michael Lamb of Mount Washington and daughter Barbara Garvey of Mt. Lebanon.

Visitation is from 6 to 8 p.m. Sunday and from 2 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. Monday at Beinhauer funeral home in Peters.

A funeral service is at 10 a.m. Tuesday at St. Bernard Church in Mt. Lebanon.

First Published: May 10, 2015, 4:00 a.m.