Tom Ridge

Tom Ridge is an American Republican politician who served as the first United States Secretary of Homeland Security from 2003 to 2005 and as Governor of Pennsylvania from 1995 to 2001. He was born Thomas Joseph Ridge on August 26, 1945, in Munhall, Pennsylvania, the son of a Pittsburgh-area meat-cutter, and grew up in Erie, Pennsylvania. He earned a scholarship to Harvard, graduating with honors in 1967, then served in the United States Army in Vietnam from 1969 to 1970, earning the Bronze Star.

He completed law school at Dickinson School of Law in 1972 and worked as an Erie County assistant district attorney before being elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1982 from Pennsylvania's 21st district. He served six terms in Congress, focusing on veterans' affairs, defense, and trade, and was reelected by wide margins through 1992.

He was elected Governor of Pennsylvania in 1994 and reelected in 1998, serving from 1995 to 2001. As governor he signed legislation creating Pennsylvania's school-choice and charter-school programs, restructured the state's welfare system, and presided over a period of state-tax cuts and budget surpluses. He resigned in October 2001 to become President George W. Bush's Assistant for Homeland Security.

When the Department of Homeland Security was established by act of Congress in 2002, Ridge was confirmed as its first Secretary on January 22, 2003, and served until February 1, 2005. He oversaw the merger of 22 federal agencies into the new department and the creation of the color-coded Homeland Security Advisory System. He returned to private business after leaving the cabinet, founding the consulting firm Ridge Global. His passage from Erie congressman to inaugural Homeland Security Secretary made him one of the more-prominent Pennsylvania Republicans of his generation.

His name Tom is a short form of Thomas, from the Aramaic T'oma meaning "twin." It has been one of the most-common American boys' names for centuries, and Ridge has carried it through more than four decades of public service.