Veteran Congresswoman Grace Napolitano to Receive Honorary Doctorate
Life moves at a bit of a slower pace these days for Congresswoman Grace Napolitano.
Napolitano once spent her days in meetings and hearings, traveling weekly between Washington, D.C., and California. But after nearly four decades in public office, the veteran lawmaker opted to not seek reelection and 2024 and retire in January.
“I am enjoying sleeping in and not having to travel,” Napolitano said. “I have never not had a job since I was 12. My mother was a single mother, so I went to work babysitting at 12. And I worked while in high school. So, this feels kind of surreal.”
Throughout her career in public service, Napolitano was known for fierce advocate her constituents and the communities she served. That was especially evident in her longtime support of education and Cal Poly Pomona.
For her commitment to Cal Poly Pomona and dedication to service, Napolitano will receive the Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters at Commencement on May 18. She will be honored and speak at the College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences ceremony at 8 a.m.
For Napolitano, who moved to Norwalk from Texas in the 1950s with her late husband, getting involved in her community was second nature. The mother of five served on Norwalk’s Sister City Commission for almost two decades before deciding to run for Norwalk City Council in 1986.
“Some city commissioners got together and voiced their opinions that they felt the city wasn’t doing well and needed change,” she said. “There were problems in the parks. There were drugs, and families didn’t feel safe to go to the parks. There also was a fuel tank farm in the city that needed to be moved. People spoke out about it and wanted to be engaged.”
That prompted Napolitano’s run for city council, where she was the first Latina councilwoman and the first candidate to defeat an incumbent. She won by 26 votes. Napolitano’s fellow council members selected her to serve as mayor in 1989. She subsequently ran for the state assembly in 1992, and after being termed out, she ran for Congress in 1998. In her bid for Congress, Napolitano narrowly defeated James “Jamie” Casso, the son-in-law of her predecessor in the House of Representatives, Esteban Torres, who announced his retirement just days before the filing deadline.
Her 31st district includes the cities and communities of El Monte, West Covina, Covina, Baldwin Park, Azusa, Bradbury, Duarte, Irwindale, South El Monte, Industry, La Puente, Avocado Heights, West Puente Valley, Valinda. Glendora, San Dimas, La Verne and Monrovia. Her district previously included a portion of Pomona and Cal Poly Pomona, but she lost it due to redistricting in 2020.
Read more...
