Jerry Mumford Patterson is a California lawyer in California and the District of Columbia, educator and politician, who was a United States Representative from California.
Education
Born in El Paso, Texas, Patterson graduated from Tucson High School in Tucson, Arizona in 1952. 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 University of California, Los Angeles School of Law where he earned his law degree in 1966.
Career
He served in the United States Coast Guard from 1953 to 1957. Patterson received his Bachelor from California State University, Long Beach in 1960. 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.
Guide to the Jerry M. Patterson Papers.
Special Collections and Archives, The University of California Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California. Other
Official Coast Community College District Board biography
Jerry M. Patterson at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
Membership
Patterson was also a member of the United States House Select Committee on Children, Youth, and Families
Patterson continues to be an educator, community activist and member of nonprofit boards and commissions.