Pat schroeder biography

American politician (1940–2023)

This article is about the politician. For the wrestler, see Leilani Kai.

Patricia Nell Scott Schroeder (July 30, 1940 – March 13, 2023) was an American politician who represented Colorado's 1st congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1973 to 1997. A member of the Democratic Party, Schroeder was the first female U.S. Representative elected from Colorado and ran for president in 1988.

Early years

Patricia Nell Scott was born on July 30, 1940, in Portland, Oregon, the daughter of Bernice (Scott), a first-grade teacher, and Lee Combs Scott, a pilot who owned an aviation insurance company. She moved to Des Moines, Iowa, with her family as a child, and earned her airman certificate when she was fifteen. After graduating from Theodore Roosevelt High School in 1958, she left Des Moines and attended the University of Minnesota, where she majored in history. Schroeder was a member of Chi Omega sorority. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1961 and earned a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1964.

On August 18, 1962, she married Jim Schroeder, a Harvard Law School classmate, and moved to Denver, Colorado, where Jim joined a law firm. They had two children, Scott William (born 1966) and Jamie Christine (born 1970). Schroeder worked for the National Labor Relations Board from 1964 to 1966. She worked for Planned Parenthood as a legal counsel, and taught in Denver's public schools.

U.S. Representative

Campaigns

In 1970, Schroeder's husband Jim ran for a seat in the Colorado General Assembly and lost by only 42 votes. In the same election, 20-year Democratic incumbent Byron Rogers of Colorado's 1st congressional district, based in Denver, lost a primary challenge to more liberal Craig Barnes, and Republican Mike McKevitt won the general election. Ahead of the 1972 election, Jim ha

Though political rivals and some male colleagues at first dismissed her as “little Patsy,” Pat Schroeder became the forceful doyenne of American liberals on issues ranging from arms control to women’s reproductive rights during her 24-year House career. Congresswoman Schroeder’s biting wit and political barbs—from her seat on the Armed Services Committee, she once told Pentagon officials that if they were women, they would always be pregnant because they never said “no”—helped to make her a household name and blazed a trail for a new generation of women onto Capitol Hill.

Patricia Scott was born in Portland, Oregon, on July 30, 1940, daughter of Lee Scott, an aviation insurance salesman, and Bernice Scott, a public school teacher. “When I was growing up,” Schroeder recalled, “my father was always interested in politics and he talked about it. The dinner table conversations were always very vivid about what was going on.” Her great-grandfather had served alongside William Jennings Bryan in the Nebraska legislature, lending a reform-populist cast to her political heritage. As part of a military family that moved from post to post, she was raised in Texas, Ohio, and Iowa. Pat Scott earned a pilot’s license and operated her own flying service to pay her college tuition. She graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1961, a member of Phi Beta Kappa majoring in philosophy, history, and political science. She earned a JD from Harvard Law School in 1964, though, as one of just 15 women in a class of more than 500, she felt “submerged in sexism.” On August 18, 1962, she married a law school classmate, James Schroeder, and the couple moved to Denver, eventually rearing two children: Scott and Jamie. While in law school, a professor told Schroeder that most corporations shunned women lawyers, so she took a job with the federal government for two years as a field attorney for the National Labor Relations Board. She later moved in

In 2009 former Democratic Rep. Patricia Scott Schroeder retired as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Association of American Publishers (AAP), the national trade organization of the U.S. book publishing industry, a post she assumed on June 1, 1997. Mrs. Schroeder left Congress undefeated in 1996 after representing Colorado's First Congressional District (Denver) in the United States House of Representatives for 24 years.

From January to June 1997, she held the rank of Professor at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. In addition to heading the AAP, Mrs. Schroeder also serves on the Marguerite Casey Foundation Board of Directors, On the National Common Cause Board, the Child Welfare League Board, is the CEO of the English Speaking Union and the International ESU also, and is on the Communication Consortium and the Child Welfare League Boards.

Born in Portland, Oregon in 1940, Mrs. Schroeder graduated magna cum laude from the University of Minnesota. Mrs. Schroeder went on to Harvard Law School, one of only 15 women in a class of more than 500 men. She earned her J.D. in 1964 and moved to Denver, Colorado with her husband, James, who in 1972 encouraged her to challenge an incumbent Republican for the House seat representing Colorado's First Congressional District.

The mother of two young children at the time she was elected to the House, Mrs. Schroeder went on to serve 12 terms.

Mrs. Schroeder is the author of two books: "Champion of the Great American Family" (Random House, 1989) and "24 Years of House Work...and the Place Is Still a Mess" (Andrews McMeel, 1998).

Related Articles:

Judy Hasson, Patricia Schroeder, congresswoman who wielded barbed wit, dies at 82, The Washington Post, (Mar. 13, 2023), https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2023/03/13/patricia-schroeder-colorado-congresswoman-dead/, [https://perma.cc/KJ52-RBEP].

Katharine Q. Seelye, Patricia Schroeder, Feminist F