Jerry M. Patterson

Jerry Mumford Patterson (born October 25, 1934) is a California lawyer in California and the District of Columbia, educator and politician, who was a United States Representative from California.

Born in El Paso, Texas, Patterson graduated from Tucson High School in Tucson, Arizona in 1952. He served in the United States Coast Guard from 1953 to 1957. Patterson received his B.A. from California State University, Long Beach in 1960. He completed 30 units of graduate work at the University of Southern California School of Public Administration in 1961 to 1963, then went on to UCLA School of Law where he earned his law degree from UCLA in 1966.

He was admitted to the California bar in 1967 and commenced practice in Santa Ana. He was a Santa Ana city councilman from 1969 to 1973. He was concurrently the Mayor of Santa Ana and the City Attorney of Placentia from 1973 to 1975.

Congressman Patterson was the first Democrat to be elected to Congress from a district entirely within Orange County, California. He served five terms from January 3, 1975 until January 3, 1985, when he vacated his office after losing his reelection bid to Bob Dornan. He served as chairman of the Select Committee on Committee Reform (Ninety-sixth Congress)and Chaired the House Subcommittee on International Development Finance in the Ninety-seventh and Ninety-eighth Congress'.

He resumed the practice of law in Costa Mesa in 1986. He was a professor at California State University, Long Beach from 1986 to 1999. He became the City Attorney of Cypress in 1987, Dana Point, California in 1989 and Lake Forest, California in 1991. Patterson retired from his law practice in 1997 and has been President of his own public affairs consulting firm since 1998. Congressman Patterson continues to be an educator, community activist and member of nonprofit boards and commissions. In 1996 Patterson returned to elective office when he won a seat on the Coast Community College District Board of Trustees where he continues to serve on the college board for Orange Coast College, Golden West College and Coastline Community College.

Patterson lives in Fountain Valley, with his wife, Linda Moulton-Patterson, who was a Huntington Beach City Councilwoman and Mayor from 1990 until 1994. She served five years on the California Coastal Commission from 1994 to 1999. Moulton-Patterson served in the Administration of Governor Gray Davis where she was the first woman and longest serving Chair of the California Integrated Waste Management Board from 1999 to 2005, a board to reduce, reuse, and recycle products and natural resources to save waste landfills. Jerry Patterson and Linda Moulton-Patterson have four adult children and six grandchildren.

External links

• Official Coast Community College District Board biography
• Jerry M. Patterson at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

United States House of Representatives
Preceded by Richard T. Hanna	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California's 38th congressional district 1975–1985	Succeeded by Bob Dornan

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.

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Name	Patterson, Jerry Mumford
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Date of birth	October 25, 1934
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