[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 1 (Tuesday, January 4, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E4]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  HONORING THE LIFE OF PATRICIA RITTER

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JOHN B. LARSON

                             of connecticut

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, January 4, 2005

  Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute 
to Patricia Ritter, who passed away on December 10, 2004. Mrs. Ritter 
was one of Connecticut's most influential civil rights leaders and she 
leaves a legacy that will not soon be forgotten. Her passion for social 
justice was only matched by her passion for her family. She leaves 
behind her husband and five children, two of whom served in the 
Connecticut General Assembly. While I served as State Senate President 
Pro Tempore I had the privilege of working with her son Tom, who served 
as Speaker of the House. My deepest condolences go out to Tom and his 
family during this time.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in remembering and 
honoring the life of Patricia Ritter. I would also like to submit for 
the Record this editorial from the Hartford Courant which captures the 
essence of what made Mrs. Ritter such a special person.

               [From the Hartford Courant, Dec. 14, 2004]

                       The Remarkable Pat Ritter

       She stood for something. She acted on her beliefs. She 
     changed things.
       Patricia Ritter, who died last week at the age of 84, was 
     an activist, civil rights pioneer, internationalist and 
     teacher as well as the wife and mother of three state 
     legislators.
       A woman of grace, good cheer and quiet intensity, Mrs. 
     Ritter was exposed to, and appalled by, a segregated 
     restaurant when she was a 16-year-old freshman at the 
     University of Iowa. She organized a protest and then headed 
     South with the first of the Freedom Riders--traveling in the 
     odious ``Colored Only'' train cars, and refusing to move.
       After marrying and moving to Connecticut, she was named to 
     the state's Commission on Human Rights in 1950, the first 
     woman so honored. Facing the problem of segregated housing, 
     she and her husband George co-founded the Connecticut Housing 
     Investment Fund, Inc. in 1968 to finance integrated and 
     affordable housing and neighborhood revitalization projects 
     throughout Connecticut.
       This allowed racial minorities to buy homes in the suburbs, 
     which sometimes brought threats of violence and, on at least 
     one occasion, actual violence to Mrs. Ritter.
       To date, CHIF has provided more than $108 million to help 
     individuals and organizations purchase, rehabilitate or build 
     homes for low- and moderate-income families.
       The wall between city and suburb was not the only one she 
     helped tear down. After China opened its doors to the West in 
     the 1970s, Mrs. Ritter founded China in Connecticut, one of 
     the first educational links between this country and China.
       A college teacher, she spent a decade teaching English at 
     Chinese universities, and sponsored many of her Chinese 
     students to study at U.S. colleges. Several of Mrs. Ritter's 
     children followed her example and taught in China as well. 
     The results of such work are incalculable. Mrs. Ritter's five 
     children carried on her beliefs; as artists, writers, 
     teachers, businessmen and legislators. Her husband and sons 
     Thomas and John served in the General Assembly; Thomas was 
     speaker of the House for three terms.
       ``Her integrity, her character, her work, her children--she 
     was just a marvelous person,'' said Judge Robert Satter, a 
     longtime family friend. Mrs. Ritter's life affirms the 
     proposition that, yes, one person can make a difference.

                          ____________________