Background
Christie was born to an Irish Catholic family in the Philadelphia suburb of Paoli, Pennsylvania, the ninth of 10 children.
Christie was born to an Irish Catholic family in the Philadelphia suburb of Paoli, Pennsylvania, the ninth of 10 children.
She was Class President of the University of Delaware Class of 1985 (her husband was President of the Class of 1984) Christie earned her Master of Business Administration at Seton Hall University in New Jersey.
Mary Pat Christie pursued a career in investment banking, eventually working at a Wall Street investment firm located two blocks from the site of the September 11 attacks. On that date, she lost cell phone reception and was unable to contact her family. Governor Christie has spoken about how long those hours were that day.
He was dealing with a disaster that struck an enormous number of New Jersey and New York families, all while having no contact with Mary Pat.
He remembers thinking, "What am I going to do without my best friend?", "What kind of single dad am I going to be?" She became a managing director at the Wall Street investment firm Angelo, Gordon & Company Mary Pat has been the family"s primary breadwinner, earning $500,000 of the couple"s total income of $700,000 in 2014.
She left her position with Angelo, Gordon & Company in April 2015, stating that she wanted to spend more time with her family. When Hurricane Sandy devastated communities along the Jersey Shore in 2012, Christie took a three-month leave from her job to set up and run the Hurricane Sandy New Jersey Relief Fund.
Christie heads the Hurricane Sandy New Jersey Relief Fund, the Drumthwacket Foundation and New Jersey Heroes.
She used her fundraising prowess again to assist Christie"s campaign for President. Mary Pat accompanied the Governor as he campaigned in 2015. When he had to return to New Jersey in January 2016 because as the Blizzard of 2016 bore down on his state, Mary Pat stayed in New Hampshire and substituted for the Governor at scheduled campaign stops.
