Thomas Joseph " Tom" Ridge (born in 1946) is an American politician, member of the Republican party, former governor of Pennsylvania and first secretary with the Internal security of 2001 with 2005.

Biography

Born the August 26th 1946 in Munhall, Pennsylvania, Tom Ridge is resulting from a family of the working class.

Excel pupil at the school, it gains a school purse to study with Harvard of which it will be graduate with the honors in 1967.

It made its Military service during the Guerre of Vietnam as a sergeant in the Infanterie and was decorated very often for its courage and its services rendered to the country.

It returns to the civil life in 1970 and finishes in 1972 its studies of right to the university of Dickinson.

In 1980, the lawyer Tom Ridge becomes the assistant of the District Attorney of the county of Erie in Pennsylvania.

In 1982, he is the first veteran of Vietnam to being elected with the national room of the representatives. The new republican deputy of Pennsylvania will be re-elected with each renewal of his mandate.

In 1994, Tom Ridge is elected governor of Pennsylvania under the colors of the Republican party and is re-elected in 1998.

The Ridge governor will leave the trace of a man with comes up, promoting legislations on the law and the order, restricting the conditions for application of the right to strike and instituting a legal procedure accelerated as regards capital punishment, signing more than 200 requests for executions.

Opposed to the Homosexual marriage, this Catholique practitioner is nevertheless favorable to the right to the Avortement.

In 2001, it resigns of its post of governor following his nomination by George W. Bush to take the post of Secretary of State to the internal security, new function created after the terrorist attacks of the September 11th, 2001 to New York and Washington DC.

The new direction gathers more than 22 federal agencies and employs 180.000 agents.

Its administration is at the origin of the codes alarms of colors red, oranges, green… daily diffused on the chains of infos continuously.

The November 30th 2004, after the re-election of George W. Bush, it announces her resignation of the government for family reasons after 22 years of public life. Ridge also announces its desire to return in the private sector and to move away from the public affairs.

The 1st févier 2005, it is Michael Chertoff which becomes the 2nd Secretary of State to the internal security.

Tom Ridge and his wife, married since 1979, are the parents of 2 adoptive children.

See too