Philip Rock, an Oak Park Democrat who led the Illinois Senate as its president during his 22 years in Springfield, died early Friday.

Rock, 78, first rose to the post of Illinois Senate president in 1979 and left the Senate in 1993.

His obituary describes him as "a Catholic, a Democrat and a Cubs fan ... but not necessarily in that order."

He is survived by his wife of 51 years, Sheila, as well as three daughters and a son.

State Sen. Don Harmon, an Oak Park Democrat, remembered Rock as a mentor.

"His ability to get things done and his unerring sense of fairness should be the standard to which all of us in politics hold ourselves," Harmon said. "I will always be grateful for his kindness, his decency and his sense of duty to encourage young people to engage in politics."

The longtime legislative leader, born in 1937, was remembered as an advocate for young children by the leader of the Glen Ellyn school that now bears his name.

"His leadership around people with special needs is especially important to us," Philip J. Rock Center and School CEO Seth Harkins said.

In promoting a book he released in 2011, Rock described how he worked with Republican Gov. Jim Thompson as a Democrat controlling the Senate.

"Others weren't happy with me because they wanted me to beat up on Gov. James R. Thompson, a Republican. They thought partisanship was more important than doing the work we were sent there to do," Rock told the Rockford Register-Star.

"I had to remind my members that on any given day, they might want me to go down to Thompson's office … and ask him to sign their bill. 'Why are you so eager for me to criticize him?' I would say. 'After I do that do you want me to ask him to sign your bill, which he probably doesn't care about?'"

Thompson, who led the state during much of Rock's tenure, credited the former legislator with keeping together a diverse group of Chicago and downstate Democrats who often had varying and divergent interests. Thompson said the two had remained friendly even after they both left the public eye.

"You could rely on him," Thompson said Friday. "He was able to lead his caucus with a lot of different voices in it."

Current Senate President John Cullerton, a Chicago Democrat, recalled Rock's public speaking talents.

"He was the most articulate orator of anyone I've ever served with, a talent he told me he learned in the seminary," Cullerton said.

Rock earned a bachelor's in philosophy at St. Mary of the Lake in Mundelein and a law degree at Loyola University, according to a biography on the website of the law firm Rock, Fusco & Connelly in Chicago.

Most state lawmakers working now hadn't served with Rock, but state Sen. Terry Link of Vernon Hills said the former Senate president was generous to county political leaders like him trying to get local candidates elected.

"I saw him as a true leader," Link said. "And I think he will be sorely missed."

A funeral Mass is scheduled for 10 a.m. Feb. 11 at Old St. Patrick's Church, 700 W. Adams St., Chicago.