Early Life, Education, and Early Career
Wyden was born Ronald Lee Wyden in Wichita, Kansas, the son of Edith (née Rosenow) and Peter H. Wyden (originally Weidenreich, 1923–1998), both of whom were Jewish and had fled Nazi Germany a few years earlier. Wyden grew up in Palo Alto, California, where he played basketball for Palo Alto High School. He attended the University of California, Santa Barbara on a basketball scholarship, and later transferred to Stanford University, where he received his Bachelor of Arts in 1971. He received a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Oregon School of Law in 1974.
While teaching gerontology at several Oregon universities, Wyden founded the Oregon chapter of the Gray Panthers; which he led from 1974 to 1980. Wyden also served as the director of the Oregon Legal Services Center for Elderly, a nonprofit law service.
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Famous quotes containing the words early and/or career:
“I looked at my daughters, and my boyhood picture, and appreciated the gift of parenthood, at that moment, more than any other gift I have ever been given. For what person, except one’s own children, would want so deeply and sincerely to have shared your childhood? Who else would think your insignificant and petty life so precious in the living, so rich in its expressiveness, that it would be worth partaking of what you were, to understand what you are?”
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