August William "Bill" Ritter is an American politician of the Democratic Party, and was the 41st Governor of the state of Colorado, from 2007 to 2011. Before his election in 2006, he served as the district attorney for Denver. He is the first native-born governor of Colorado since 1975, as well as being the first Democratic governor to serve with a Democratic majority in the Colorado General Assembly in 50 years. Ritter did not run for a second term as Governor in 2010. Ritter was born in Denver and raised on a farm in far eastern Aurora among his 11 brothers and sisters . He attended... Gateway High School while he lived in Aurora. He also attended St. Anthony Catholic High School in San Antonio, Texas from 1970–1972. His father, Bill, was a heavy equipment operator in the construction industry. His mother, Ethel, was a homemaker until the family began to struggle economically and she found work as a bookkeeper when Ritter was a young teenager. At 14 years old, he went to work full time in the construction industry, and joined a local labor union.
more