WASHINGTON, DC – The Ripon Society honored one of its founders, Wisconsin Rep. Tom Petri, at a July 17th breakfast discussion in Washington, DC. Petri helped establish the organization while a student at Harvard in 1962. As he prepares to retire from Congress after 18 terms in office, Ripon Society President & CEO Jim Conzelman presented Petri with a bust of President Theodore Roosevelt to thank him not only for his contributions to The Ripon Society, but to his lifetime of service to the United States.

The Ripon Society is a public policy organization that was founded in 1962 and takes its name from the town where the Republican Party was born in 1854 – Ripon, Wisconsin. One of the main goals of The Ripon Society is to promote the ideas and principles that have made America great and contributed to the GOP’s success. These ideas include keeping our nation secure, keeping taxes low and having a federal government that is smaller, smarter and more accountable to the people.