Tom Ridge

Tom Ridge (Thomas Joseph Ridge), 1945-, U.S. politician and government official, first secretary of the Dept. of Homeland Security (2003-5), b. Munhall, Pa. A graduate of Harvard (1967) and the Dickinson School of Law (1972) who served (1968-70) in the infantry in Vietnam, Ridge worked in private law practice and became active in the Republican party. In 1982 he was elected to the House of Representatives from Pennsylvania and served six terms. Elected governor of his home state in 1994, he was in his second term when President George W. Bush asked him to head the Office of Homeland Security in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks (see Pentagon, the ; World Trade Center ). Chosen to head the newly established Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2003, Ridge oversaw the integration of the 22 agencies that were consolidated and reorganized in the DHS.

Travers, Ben (1886–1980), English dramatist, an outstanding writer of farce, who first came into prominence with A Cuckoo in the Nest (1925), which inaugurated a series of ‘Aldwych farces’, so called because they were all presented at the Aldwych Theatre. Their casts included Robertson Hare, Ralph Lynn, and Tom Walls. The best known were Rookery Nook (1926), Thark (1927), Plunder (1928), and Turkey Time (1931), the last being A Bit of a Test (1933). Travers also wrote a number of plays for other theatres, including a comedy, O Mistress Mine (1936), and the farces Banana Ridge (1939), Spotted Dick (1940), and She Follows Me About (1945), in all of which Robertson Hare again appeared, being joined in Outrageous Fortune (1947) and Wild Horses (1952) by Ralph Lynn. In 1975 The Bed before Yesterday, starring Joan Plowright, began a long run in London. His plays stand up reasonably well and are sometimes revived.