Katz, Vera.

Vera Katz was the 45th mayor of Portland, Oregon, serving three terms between 1993 and 2004. Before becoming Mayor she served twenty years in the Oregon House of Representatives and six as the first woman Speaker of the House. A concern for public safety, education, government efficiency, infrastructure development and pragmatism characterized her political career.

Vera Katz was born Vera Pistrak on August 3, 1933, in Düsseldorf, Germany. When she was two months old her family moved to Paris and then in 1940 traveled through the Pyrenees Mountains and Spain, eventually making their way to New York City. At Brooklyn College in New York she earned her Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in 1955 and 1957. There she also met and married her former husband Mel Katz. Between 1957 and 1962 Mrs. Katz worked as a market researcher for B.T. Babitt and Timex. With their son Jesse, she and her husband moved to Portland, Oregon in 1964.

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