Tom Ridge suffers stroke, hospitalized in critical condition Caitlin McFall Tom Ridge, a former Republican governor of Pennsylvania and the first U.S. secretary of Homeland Security, suffered a stroke Wednesday at his residence in a suburb outside of Washington, D.C. A statement by his family said Ridge was transported from his home in Bethesda, Md., by an ambulance to a hospital where he arrived still conscious. He remains in critical but stable condition, his family reported. Ridge served as Pennsylvania’s governor from 1995 to 2001 before he entered the George W. Bush administration as the nation’s first Secretary for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in the wake of 9/11.