David Leo Lawrence was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, the son of Charles B. Lawrence, a teamster and Democratic chairman of Pittsburgh's Third Ward, and Catherine Conwell. He grew up in the Point, a working-class section of the city.
He attended St. Mary's parochial school. He then took a two-year commercial course instead of a high school education.
At the age of fourteen Lawrence became an office boy for William J. Brennan, who for twenty-five years was Democratic chairman of Allegheny County. He worked for Brennan for ten years. In 1912, Lawrence was a page at the Democratic National Convention in Baltimore that nominated Woodrow Wilson for president. "Wilson was the real class, " Lawrence recalled years later. After that experience he never lost his interest in national politics.
In 1914, Lawrence became a member of the Pittsburgh Registration Commission, a position he held until 1924. Lawrence served in the Office of the Judge Advocate General in Washington, D. C. , during World War I. After the armistice he returned to Pittsburgh and sold insurance. Upon Brennan's death in 1920, Lawrence was chosen to replace him as county Democratic chairman.
Franklin D. Roosevelt's election in 1932 marked the first time since 1856 that a Democratic presidential candidate carried Pennsylvania. Roosevelt appointed Lawrence collector of internal revenue for the western part of the state. Lawrence resigned a year later to become chairman of the Democratic State Committee, a position he held, with the exception of one two-year period, until his election as mayor of Pittsburgh in 1945.
In 1935 the businessman George H. Earle swept into the governorship of Pennsylvania. Because Earle turned out to be something of a playboy, during this period, Lawrence, as secretary of the commonwealth, was considered the "real ruler of Pennsylvania. " While serving in that appointive position, Lawrence was indicted on charges of awarding illegal contracts and "macing" state employees for political contributions. After a long trial a jury acquitted him on all counts. In 1939, Lawrence left Harrisburg for Pittsburgh to rebuild his political fortunes and to head the Harris-Lawrence Company, an insurance firm. He continued as Pittsburgh's Democratic leader, and in 1940 he was named Democratic national committeeman.
At the 1944 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, he was instrumental in stopping a boom for the renomination of Vice-President Henry A. Wallace. Lawrence demanded, and got, a recess. The following day, the convention passed over Wallace in favor of Harry S. Truman, who was Lawrence's close friend and political ally. After engineering the election of two ineffective Democratic mayors of Pittsburgh, Lawrence decided in 1945 to step out from behind the scenes and run for mayor himself and was elected.
When Lawrence took office, Richard K. Mellon of the Mellon National Bank, Gulf Oil, and Alcoa, and a committee of Pittsburgh's top business leaders, were preparing to tear down and rebuild the city. In Mayor Lawrence, Mellon and his colleagues found an eager and willing partner. While Mellon's group, the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, provided the money and plans for the reconstruction of downtown Pittsburgh, Lawrence enforced antipollution and smog-control measures and lobbied at the state capital and in Washington for funds to build roads, bridges, and dams. When asked what he and Mellon had in common, Lawrence replied, "We have the same hobby . Pittsburgh. " In 1958, Fortune magazine listed Pittsburgh among the eight best-administered cities in the United States.
Lawrence, a Roman Catholic, felt that members of his faith could not win statewide election in Pennsylvania or be elected to national office. He ran for governor in 1958 only because the Democratic organization could not agree on a candidate. "I am not a candidate of my own choosing. They decided I was the man to make the fight and I was willing to go through with it, " he said. He defeated Republican Arthur T. McGonigle of Reading, a wealthy pretzel manufacturer, but his victory, making him Pennsylvania's first Catholic governor, was a narrow one: he defeated McGonigle by only 76, 000 votes (50. 8 percent) instead of the 200, 000 margin he had predicted. He attributed the close race to the religious issue. A Pennsylvania law that prohibits governors from succeeding themselves made this his last try for elected office. In the early maneuvering for the 1960 presidential nomination, Lawrence made it clear that he would welcome a third presidential bid by Adlai Stevenson. Ironically, he was cool to the candidacy of John F. Kennedy on religious grounds. Lawrence explained, "I am sure that a Catholic running for the presidency must have an issue so big, so strong, so completely overriding that his religion is never thought of. . It's got to be something that touches the people's hearts--an appeal to the passions. " At the eleventh hour, when Stevenson pulled out of the contest, Lawrence backed Kennedy.
The New York Times wrote on August 24, 1964, that Lawrence's move was decisive in assuring Kennedy's nomination on the first ballot. Lawrence also nominated Senator Lyndon Johnson for the vice-presidency. When Lawrence's term as governor ended in 1962, he returned to Pittsburgh and to his role of party leader. Soon after, Kennedy appointed him chairman of the President's Committee on Equal Opportunity for Housing. That same year, Lawrence saw one of his favorites, Philadelphia's Mayor Richardson Dilworth, defeated for governor of Pennsylvania by Republican William Scranton. Two years later, Lawrence's choice for the United States Senate was beaten in a primary. In 1966, Lawrence's candidate for governor lost in the primary to millionaire Milton Shapp, who had berated Lawrence during the campaign as a "political boss. " Lawrence nevertheless campaigned vigorously for Shapp in the general election; he suffered a cardiac arrest while speaking at a rally on Shapp's behalf. Seventeen days later, Lawrence died in Pittsburgh, never to learn that Shapp had lost decisively and that the political organization he had crafted over the years was in disarray.
Lawrence was the only mayor in the history of the city to serve four terms. He was also the only mayor of Pittsburgh to have also been elected as Governor of Pennsylvania. As a mayor, Lawrence developed a seven-point program for Pittsburgh, making him one of the first civic leaders to implement a dedicated urban renewal plan. During his four-year term as governor, he passed anti-discrimination legislation, environmental protection laws, expanded Pennsylvania's library system, passed Pennsylvania's fair housing law, advocated historic preservation and passed highway safety legislation.
Quotes from others about the person
"Like the latter-day apostle of civic progress he has become, he never missed a chance to mention his 'better Pittsburgh, ' with its smog-free air, rising skyscrapers, parks, bridges, and elevated highways. "
On June 8, 1921, Lawrence married Alice Golden. They had five children.
