Early Life and Family
Thornburgh was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on July 16, 1932, the son of Alice (Sanborn) and Charles Garland Thornburgh, an engineer. Thornburgh attended Mercersburg Academy and in 1954 obtained an engineering degree from Yale University, and a law degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 1957, where he served as an editor of the "Law Review." He subsequently has been awarded honorary degrees from 32 other colleges and universities. He joined the international law firm K&L Gates in 1959.
Thornburgh married Ginny Hooton who was killed in an automobile accident which left the youngest of their three sons with physical and intellectual disability. Thornburgh is married to Ginny Judson, a former schoolteacher from New York, who holds degrees from Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts and the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She presently serves as Director of the Interfaith Initiative of the American Association of People with Disabilities, based in Washington, D.C., and has co-authored and edited "That All May Worship," an award winning handbook for religious congregations working to include people with all types of disabilities. She received the Hubert H. Humphrey Civil Rights Award from the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights in April, 2005.
The Thornburghs have four sons, six grandchildren and a great granddaughter. As parents of a son with disability, they have taken a special interest in the needs of persons with disabilities and, with their son Peter, were named "Family of the Year." Both Ginny and Dick Thornburgh were featured speakers at the Vatican Conference on Disabilities held in Rome in November, 1992, and were co-recipients in 2003 of the Henry B. Betts Award, the proceeds from which were used to establish the Thornburgh Family Lecture Series on Disability Law and Policy at the University of Pittsburgh. As Attorney General of the United States, Thornburgh played a leading role in the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act. In 2002 Thornburgh received the Wiley E. Branton Award of The Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs in recognition of his "commitment to the civil rights of people with disabilities."
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