U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey | stock photo
U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey | stock photo
Tom Ridge, the former Pennsylvania governor who became the first U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security following the Sept. 11 attacks, was hospitalized after suffering a stroke June 16.
The 75-year-old Ridge was rushed from his Bethesda, Maryland, residence to a hospital where physicians removed a blood clot, WGAL reported. His spokesman said he was in critical but stable condition.
U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey (R) offered Ridge his well-wishes on social media. “My prayers are with Gov. Ridge and his family tonight,” Toomey tweeted June 16. “Good to hear his condition is stable. Wishing him a full and speedy recovery.”
Former Gov. Tom Ridge
| Wikimedia Commons
Gov. Tom Wolf (D) also took to Twitter to wish his predecessor a “full and swift” recovery. “Frances and I are sending our prayers to the Ridge family,” Wolf wrote.
Ridge, a Republican who led the state of Pennsylvania from 1995 to 2001, is a U.S. Army veteran who served in the Vietnam War. In 2001, he joined the George W. Bush administration as Assistant to the President for Homeland Security, an office that became officially known as Secretary of Homeland Security in 2003.
Before being elected governor in 1994, he served as a county prosecutor and a six-term congressman from Erie.
WGAL reported that Ridge currently heads a cybersecurity, international security and risk management firm that bears his name.
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