In the late 1960s when his brother-in-law became sick and could no longer work, Albert Laban scrounged up the money to buy a gas station in West Mifflin so Lee Keenist could manage it.

For Mr. Laban, the gesture was part of a pattern. A man of decent means, but hardly rich, he put himself through law school and worked two jobs as a lawyer to provide for his family and serve others.

Mr. Laban died Wednesday at his Squirrel Hill home from complications related to diabetes. He was 64.

"Maybe he thought that he didn't make as much of his life as he should have, or have as much material things as other successful people have," said Mr. Laban's wife, Victoria.

"But one of the reasons he didn't have all that was because of what he did for other people in his life."

Raised in Duquesne, Mr. Laban attended Catholic seminary schools for about 10 years in Ohio, nearly becoming a priest before deciding against it.

He got into the insurance business, married his first wife, Stella, and had three children. Living with the family in Versailles, he worked days and attended Duquesne University Law School at night.

After graduating from law school, he went to work for the Chubb Group as a claims investigator. He also operated a private law practice in the evenings, advising clients -- often family and friends -- on their wills and small businesses. A sister, Denise Lockhart, said he did her income taxes every year.

Mr. Laban worked the long hours to put all three of his children through Catholic schools and college, while also finding time to serve as a volunteer firefighter.

But during the mid-1990s, the diabetes he had battled for most of his life worsened, and Mr. Laban was hospitalized for an extended period. He lost his job and, eventually, his home. Then Stella Laban died in 1998.

Mr. Laban eventually became well enough to continue his private law practice and married Victoria Laban in 2002. A voracious reader of science fiction, he also spent his free time collecting and building model train sets, and he wired nearly the entire house to a computer -- all the way down to the coffee pot.

His grandchildren also consumed a great deal of his energies.

A son, Albert Laban III of Bristow, Va., said that Mr. Laban, despite declining health, would make frequent trips to see his grandchildren in Virginia and would dote on them when they visited Pittsburgh.

"He cared more about his grandkids than anything else in the world," Albert III said.

Besides his wife and son Albert III, he is survived by daughters Jennifer Bissell of Richland and Kristin Hasley, of Pine; brother Robert of Flemington, N.J.; sisters Kathy Nicholson of Dravosburg, Denise Lockhart of Dravosburg and Barbara Judy of North Huntingdon; and nine grandchildren.

A blessing service will be held at 10:30 a.m. today at Maloy-Schleifer Funeral Home, Duquesne, followed by a Mass at 11 a.m. in St. Joseph Church, Duquesne. Burial will be at Good Shepherd Cemetery.