(TNS) — Mary Jo White accomplished plenty even before she began her lengthy legislature tenure in 1997 serving Pennsylvania’s 21st Senatorial District in the northwestern part of the state.

She began her career in public service as a public defender in Venango County from 1974 to 1976 before spending almost 20 years working for Quaker State, first in the law department then as a corporate secretary, and finally as vice president for environmental and governmental affairs.

White, who died peacefully at her home on Sunday at the age of 83, would then flourish in her new role serving constituents in a district that consists of Clarion, Forest and Venango counties in addition to parts of Butler, Erie and Warren counties.

She’s perhaps best known for her work as Republican chair of the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee.

Per a post on the PA Environment Digest blog:

“Although part of every piece of environmental legislation passed in more than a decade, Sen. White lists her most significant accomplishments as:

Noted the Pa. Environmental Council, of which White was a member of the board of directors for years before she was elected to her Senate seat: “We greatly valued working with her on everything from protection of French Creek and trail development opportunities in her district all the way to policy initiatives of state and even international significance such as the Growing Greener Program and Great Lakes Water Resources Protection Compact. Her thoughtful intellect will be greatly missed.”

White’s committee assignments included Appropriations, Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure, and Public Health and Welfare and as Vice Chairman of the Judiciary Committee. She also served on the Wild Resource Conservation Fund, the Joint Legislative Air and Water Pollution Control and Conservation Committee, the Environmental Quality Board and the Pa. Commission on Sentencing.

For the 2001-02 legislative session, she was elected caucus administrator for the Republican majority, becoming the first woman ever elected to a Senate Republican leadership position. She held this position through the 2005-06 legislative session.

White served in the Senate to 2012.

Said Sen. Lisa Baker, R-Luzerne, in a Facebook post: “Pennsylvania lost a leader of surpassing capability and commitment with the passing of former state Senator Mary Jo White. For me, she was a friend, a mentor, and a trusted confidant. She had worked as an attorney in several capacities before seeking public office, and her command of facts and ability to ask probing questions had few parallels. She broke ceilings along the way, earning every opportunity on individual merit.”

Baker wrote that she and “others who served with [White] recall foremost her deep sense of integrity and ethics.”

“She was unwilling to sacrifice principle to make a convenient political deal, even under intense pressure from colleagues and friends,” Baker wrote.

White’s time serving the residents in her district wasn’t restricted to her work at the Capitol. Per her obituary, White also served on the boards of trustees for the University of Pittsburgh, Clarion University, Slippery Rock University, and Westminster College, and was a founding board member and a driving force behind the creation of the Northern Pennsylvania Regional College.

She was a leading advocate and champion of the nursing profession, and she was particularly focused on the provision of nursing care in rural areas of the Commonwealth, her obit added.

White leaves behind her husband of 58 years, H. William White Jr., a former judge, and three children. Her obituary and others who commented on her loss noted her particularly fondness of taking on the challenge of the Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle.

Patrick Henderson, a lobbyist who specializes in Marcellus Shale natural gas and energy markets, wrote a lengthy tribute on LinkedIn to White and mentioned the “substantial and lengthy impacts” she made while in office.

“So if you are the recipient of an environmental grant — or a legislator announcing one — thank Mary Jo White. If you benefit from cleaner water and purer air, thank Mary Jo White. Or if you’re a coal miner, helping to keep our lights on, and get to head home safely to your family after work, thank Mary Jo White.”

Henderson, who served for a number of years as executive director of White’s environmental committee, wrote, “I’ve never known a finer public servant than Mary Jo because I’ve never known a finer person. So how do we repay those we owe so much to? Quite simply, we don’t. For that was never their intent.”