Patricia (Tish) Speed Schwartz

Looking for a new challenge, Patricia (Tish) Speed Schwartz stumbled upon a job opening for a secretary in the House Science Committee. Hired in 1969, in the midst of the space race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, Schwartz described the thrill and excitement of working in a collaborative environment with a patriotic mission and sense of destiny. During her time on the committee, she experienced history-in-the-making, attending an early space shuttle launch and routinely meeting astronauts and leading scientists. In her series of interviews, she explained how the scope of the committee expanded beyond space once the honeymoon period subsided and led to an increased scrutiny of the space program.

Originally interested in working in a Member’s office, Schwartz quickly found her niche, thriving in the fast-paced and unpredictable environment of a House committee. Throughout her career, she focused on the administrative side of committee work. Schwartz’s detailed recollections of the behind-the-scenes work of committees, provides a unique look at the relationship between legislative and support staff. When she switched from the Science Committee to Judiciary in 2000, Schwartz used her previous expertise to develop procedures to increase efficiency and organization.

First hired during a time when women typically occupied clerical positions, Schwartz revealed a gradual shift in an institution steeped in tradition that allowed for increased opportunities for females. She took advantage of the changing atmosphere, taking on more responsibility and becoming an indispensable asset to both committees. Schwartz’s interviews also reflect what she termed, “a simpler way of life,” where local farmers routinely stopped by the House to sell produce and special treats for the holidays, and congressional staff gathered on the Capitol grounds for a picnic.

In 2015, the Office of the House Historian conducted an interview with Patricia (Tish) Speed Schwartz for its oral history project: A Century of Women in Congress.

• Transcript (PDF)
• Deed of Gift (PDF)

Patricia (Tish) Speed Schwartz was born in 1946, in Abington, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. The middle child of William Goodwin Speed, an electrical engineer and World War II veteran, and Jane Hoskinson, a homemaker and office manager, Tish attended nearby Catholic schools, St. Luke’s and Bishop McDevitt High School. Urged by her father to leave the confines of Philadelphia to explore the wider world and apply for a job as a flight attendant, Tish accepted the challenge and worked for Northwest Airlines for two-and-a-half years.

Tish left behind the uncertainty of a career in which female employees who married or were considered too old to work as flight attendants were dismissed by airlines. She moved to Northern Virginia where she found employment as a security officer for a software firm. In 1969, she visited Pennsylvania Representative Edward Biester’s U.S. Capitol office looking for a new job. “I thought if I’m going to live in the Washington, D.C., area, then this is what’s happening and this is where everything is,” Tish later recollected. Although the office did not have any openings, the administrative assistant, Mary Ellen Ducander, encouraged her husband Charles Ducander, a Science Committee staffer, to interview Tish for a secretarial job. Tish accepted a position with the committee, paving the way for her nearly four-decade career on the Hill.

In 1970, Tish married Stephen Schwartz. The couple welcomed a son, William Norman Schwartz, in 1975. While employed by the House, Tish Schwartz attended Northern Virginia Community School for two years, and earned a secretarial certificate from the Washington School for Secretaries.

Initially hired as a secretary for the Science Committee, Schwartz quickly branched out working as a publications clerk, transcript coordinator, and hearings clerk for several Science subcommittees. In 1976 she joined the newly created minority staff for the Science Committee. Here, she performed an array of administrative tasks in her role as administrative assistant on the Science Committee for Republican Members, Larry Winn of Kansas, Manuel Luján of New Mexico, and Robert Walker of Pennsylvania.

When Republicans took control of the House in 1995 for the first time in four decades, Schwartz was appointed Chief Clerk Administrator for the Science Committee. In her new position, she oversaw the hiring and training of the new majority staff, contributed to the development of policies for committee websites, and spearheaded the modernization and technological renovation of the Science Committee’s hearing room.

Schwartz left the Science Committee in 2000, to work as the Chief Clerk Administrator for the House Committee on the Judiciary. During her six years with Judiciary she implemented many of the administrative policies and procedures that she established on the Science Committee. She also took the lead in the archiving the records of the impeachment proceedings against President William J. “Bill” Clinton.

On January 2, 2007, Tish Schwartz retired after 37 years of service in the House.