The People’s Champion
7th District’s Ed Pastor
retires from Congress
but continues to serve
Arizona community
Congressman Ed Pastor, 71, has been a public servant his entire adult life, first as a teacher, then as a Maricopa County supervisor and finally as a U.S. Congressman representing Arizona’s 7th Congressional District in the House of Representatives.
This year, after 23 years as a congressman, he is retiring.
Pastor is a history maker. He was the first Hispanic from Arizona elected to Congress and the senior member of the state’s House delegation. “It was a proud moment,” he reflects, but as soon as the election was over, he recognized that “once you get elected, you represent everybody.“
In addition to being a history maker, he tries to be a role model, “not as a politician," he says, "but as someone who believes in public service and trying to raise a family in the right way, a good neighbor and a good community member."
Pastor has succeeded: He’s a family man whose personal values are reflected in the work of his wife and their two daughters.
Verma Pastor, his wife, is a retired educator and has served for 20 years on the Arizona Department of Education as director of bilingual education. She is also on the board of the Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority and Friends of Phoenix Library board. Previously she was a board member for Homebase Youth Services. Daughter Laura represents District 4 on the Phoenix City Council. Daughter Yvonne is manager of the Phoenix Afterschool Center (PAC).
Pastor is also an award winner: He has been recipient of numerous honors, almost all related to human rights, children and/or education. Among the 17 elementary schools in the Roosevelt School District is the Ed and Verma Pastor Elementary School.
On Oct. 25, his dossier will grow with the addition of another award. He will be honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 11th Annual CopaBall, the black-tie fundraising dinner for Maricopa Integrated Health System. Pastor has long championed Maricopa Integrated Health System as a "safety net" for the county's indigent and poor.
“I’ve been an advocate for health services to be provided to the poor, whether it is behavioral or physical health services. I’ve always been proud of my record on that.“ And he counts as one of the accomplishments he is most proud of the fact that he was one of three supervisors who voted to create the MIHS McDowell Healthcare Center, which opened in 1989, to provide services for patients living with HIV.
He’s also proud that on a national level, he was one of four people given the opportunity to manage the debate on the Affordable Care Act. “It was a great honor to be on the podium. To this day, it’s a piece of legislation that’s being debated and discussed.”
His retirement doesn’t mean Arizona has heard the last from Ed Pastor. No golf for him, he says. “I look forward to doing community service. There are still needs in our community, one being that children and the working poor have access to healthcare. I’ll be working on that with Maricopa Integrated Health System as well as other hospitals.”
For a moment, though, at the Oct. 25 CopaBall, he should just sit back and soak in a much-deserved thank you.
