Tom Ridge

Thomas Joseph Ridge (born August 26, 1946) is the first United States Secretary of Homeland Security.

Prior to that appointment, Secretary Ridge served as Assistant to the President for the Office of Homeland Security, created in October 2001 after the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks. Before that, he was twice elected Governor of Pennsylvania, first in 1986 and also in 1995. He was elected six times to the United States House of Representatives starting in 1982, the first enlisted Vietnam combat veteran elected to that chamber.

Born in Munhall, in Pittsburgh's Steel Valley, the son of a travelling salesman and navy veteran, he was the oldest of three children. Ridge was raised in a working class family in veterans' public housing in Erie, Pennsylvania from 1948. He was educated a local Catholic schools and did well both academically and in sports. He earned a scholarship to Harvard College, paying his way through construction work, graduating with honors in 1967.

After his first year at the Dickinson School of Law, he was drafted into the U.S. Army, where he served as an infantry staff sergeant in Vietnam, earning the Bronze Star for Valor, the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry and the Combat Infantry Badge. A ruptured appendix cut short his tour and he returned home in 1970, a childhood ear infection was also aggravated by his service and Ridge has needed a hearing aid in his left ear since then. After returning to Pennsylvania, he earned his law degree at Dickinson, graduating in 1972, and was in private practice. He became assistant district attorney in Erie County, Pennsylvania in 1980 and prosecuted 86 cases in two years. In 1982 he ran for Congress for Pennsylvania, he won and has (to 2003) never lost an election for political office.

Career as Governor

Ridge was the governor of Pennsylvania from 1995 until 2001. As governor, he opposed Affirmative Action and civil rights laws, including gay marriage. He supported a three-strikes law and a faster death-penalty process. During his tenure, he signed more than two-hundred execution warrants, five times the number signed over a 25-year period by two previous governors. Two of the warrants were for Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Family

Tom Ridge and his wife, Michele, the former executive director of the Erie County Library system, have two children, Lesley and Tommy. He married Michele Moore in 1979.

External Links

Homeland Security Cultural Bureau biography of Tom Ridge.
Jeffrey St. Clair and Alexander Cockburn, Tom Ridge in Vietnam. Tarnished Star, CounterPunch, October 1, 2001.
Security Chief Ridge: 'The Task is Enormous', NPR.org, October 8, 2001.
Angus Love, Who Is Tom Ridge?, Guerrilla News, October 18, 2001.
John W. Dean, Tom Ridge's Non-Testimonial Appearance Before Congress: Another Nixon-style Move By The Bush Administration, FindLaw's Legal Commentary, April 12, 2002.
Newsmaker: Tom Ridge, Online NewsHour, May 9, 2002.
Person of the Week: Tom Ridge. Now for the hard part: After a week in which the Senate gave him a cabinet-level position, the Homeland Security chief is preparing to take on the toughest job in Washington, Time.com, November 22, 2002.
Ridge's journey to the national stage, The Rising Son; updated January 21, 2003. Locally produced biography of Tom Ridge.
Environmental record

In the News

Gene Linked To Aggressive 'Wet' Age-related Macular Degeneration
A gene variant that increases the risk of developing the aggressive "wet"form of age-related macular degeneration, the most common cause of blindness in people over age 50, is reported in two recent articles in Science by researchers at Yale School of Medicine.

Appalachian Mountains, Carbon Dioxide Caused Long-ago Global Cooling
The rise of the Appalachian Mountains may have caused a major ice age approximately 450 million years ago, an Ohio State University study has found. The weathering of the mountains pulled carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere, causing the opposite of a greenhouse effect -- an "icehouse"effect.

[Ironic] LONDON: A jailed cocaine dealer is working as Santa Claus on
John Tams, who dons beard, boots and red suit to work in a cafe's Christmas grotto, said he wanted to give something back to the community...

Putting The Brakes On Bike Thieves: System Alerts Security If Someone
New technology could put the brakes on bicycle thieves and may also be useful in flagging suspicious events in public places. The new computer system detects individuals parking their bicycles and can automatically warn security staff if it appears that someone other than the owner retrieves the vehicle.

Saving Time, Saving Energy: Daylight Saving Time, Its History and Why
Explains why we adjust our clocks one hour forward in the spring and back in the fall ("spring forward, fall back"). Also find the history of Daylight Saving Time and a schedule for its occurrences from 1990 to 2010. Includes trivia about time and links to related sites. From the California Energy Commission.

AARP Policy &Research for Professionals in Aging: Boomers
Policy documents and reports on aging and retirement issues concerning the U.S. baby boomer generation of people born in the period from the later 1940s through the early 1960s. Topics include older workers, retirement plan coverage, retirement savings, financial wealth, civic engagement, travel, and quality-of-life concerns. From AARP.

New Study Shows How Often Juries Get It Wrong
A new Northwestern University study shows that juries in criminal cases many times are getting it wrong. In a set of 271 cases from four areas, juries gave wrong verdicts in at least one out of eight cases, according to a statistician whose paper is being published in the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies.

Siberian Tigers Hang Tough: Results Of Latest Survey Show Tiger Number
Results of the latest full range survey indicate that tiger numbers in Russia appear to be stable, say the coordinators of a 2005 winter effort to count the animals, led by the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society.

Lymphomas Need Distinct Care
When it comes to treating HIV-positive patients with blood cancers, not all lymphomas are created equal, according to hematologists from USC.

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