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Tom Ridge, former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security and Governor of Pennsylvania, will be the principal speaker at Lafayette’s 170th Commencement Saturday, May 21, and will receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.
Lafayette president Arthur J. Rothkopf ’55 said, “I am delighted that Secretary Ridge will speak to our graduates and parents at commencement. He has a distinguished record of service to both our Commonwealth and our nation. As a two-term governor, he demonstrated a strong commitment to providing outstanding educational opportunities for the children of Pennsylvania. As the first Secretary of Homeland Security, he provided essential leadership at a critical time in our history.”
Ridge joins a list of eminent Lafayette commencement speakers in recent years, including Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, former President George H.W. Bush, Maya Angelou, Jim Lehrer, George F. Will, Vartan Gregorian, Doris Kearns Goodwin, David McCullough, Bill Cosby, and French Ambassador Francois Bujon de l’Estang.
Ridge was sworn in as Pennsylvania’s 43rd governor in January 1995 following six terms as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Elected to a second term as governor in 1998, he resigned in October 2001 when he was appointed by President George W. Bush as the nation’s first Office of Homeland Security Advisor, with a charge of developing and coordinating a comprehensive national strategy to strengthen protections against terrorist threats or attacks in the United States.
In January 2003 Ridge became Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, overseeing a new Cabinet department with 180,000 employees that was formed through the consolidation of 22 government agencies. Last month he stepped down as homeland security secretary, saying he wanted to spend more time with his family after more than 20 years of public service.
Born Aug. 26, 1945, Ridge was raised in a working-class family in veterans’ public housing in Erie, Pa. He earned a scholarship to Harvard, 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 1968-70, earning the Bronze Star for Valor. After returning to Pennsylvania and earning his law degree (in 1972), he became an assistant district attorney in Erie County. In 1982 he became the first enlisted Vietnam combat veteran elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.
Ridge and his wife, Michele, the former executive director of the Erie County Library system, have two children, Lesley and Tommy.
Tom Ridge, former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security and Governor of Pennsylvania.