Teresa Heinz

Teresa Heinz Kerry
Born	Maria Teresa Thierstein Simões-Ferreira (1938-10-05) October 5, 1938 Maputo, Mozambique
Nationality	American
Other names	Teresa Heinz Kerry
Known for	philanthropist
Political party	Democratic Party (2003-)
Spouse(s)	H. John Heinz III (1966-1991) John Kerry (1995-)
Children	H. John Heinz IV Andre Heinz Christopher Drake Heinz

Maria Teresa Thierstein Simões-Ferreira Heinz (Kerry) (born October 5, 1938) is an American philanthropist, the widow of the late U.S. Senator H. John Heinz III, and the wife of Senator John Kerry.

Early life

According to her official biography, Teresa was born Maria Teresa Thierstein Simões Ferreira to Portuguese parents in Portuguese East Africa, at the time a colony and now the independent nation of Mozambique. Her father was José Simões Ferreira Júnior (1910-1989; born in Albergaria-a-Velha, and died in Porto, Portugal), and her mother was Irene Thierstein (1912-1997) born a Portuguese national in Lourenço Marques, Mozambique, daughter of Alberto Thierstein, a British national of Swiss origin, from La Valleta, Malta (at the time a British-ruled territory), and Maria Burló, born in Alexandria, Egypt, who both migrated to Mozambique).

Teresa (pronounced IPA: ['t(ɨ)ɾezɐ]) grew up in Mozambique's capital, Lourenço Marques (now called Maputo). Her father was a medical doctor, and "Teresinha" (which means "Little Teresa" or "Terri" in Portuguese) led a relatively privileged life. Her father, however, often brought her along on his calls into the African bush, where she witnessed how those of lesser means lived.

Teresa earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Romance Languages and literature from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1960. She graduated from the School of Translation and Interpretation at the University of Geneva (Switzerland) in 1963 before moving to the United States to work at the United Nations as an interpreter.

She is fluent in five languages: English, Spanish, French, Italian, as well as her native tongue, Portuguese.

Marriages and children

Teresa Simões-Ferreira married billionaire and future Pennsylvania U.S. Senator Henry John Heinz III of the Heinz family (famous for the food products company founded by Henry John Heinz) on February 5, 1966, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A few years after the marriage, in 1971, Teresa Heinz became a naturalized citizen of the United States. The couple had three sons: H. John Heinz IV (born 1967), Andre Heinz (born 1970) and Christopher Drake Heinz (born 1973).

According to her official biography, Teresa Heinz first met John Kerry in 1990 at an Earth Day rally. This was the only reported time that she and Kerry met before the death of Senator Heinz. After Senator Heinz died in an airplane crash on April 4, 1991, in Pennsylvania, Teresa Heinz inherited his vast fortune.

The next time she met John Kerry was in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992 during the Earth Summit, which Ms. Heinz attended as a member of a State Department delegation appointed by President George H. W. Bush. Their courtship began in 1993, and they were married on May 26, 1995 on Nantucket, Massachusetts. Choosing to remain a registered Republican until her second husband's presidential bid, she also kept her name as Teresa Heinz. In May of 2004, she had this to say about her name:

"My legal name is still Teresa Heinz. Teresa Heinz Kerry is my name... (only) for politics. Just so people don't ask me questions about so and so is so and so's wife or this and that. Teresa Heinz is what I've been all my growing-up life, adult life, more than any other name. And it's the name of my boys, you know?...So, that's my legal name and that's my office name, my Pittsburgh name."

Mrs. Heinz Kerry is older than both her husbands. She was two and half weeks older than John Heinz. She is also more than 5 years older than John Kerry.

Philanthropy

She is the chair of The Howard Heinz Endowment and the Heinz Family Philanthropies (collectively, the Heinz Foundations), disbursing money to various social and environmental causes. She assists the community of Pittsburgh, where the Heinz family has had many financial and family connections. In recognition of her philanthropy and activism, Heinz has received twelve honorary doctoral degrees from the following institutions:

• Bank Street College of Education
• Beloit College
• Carlow University
• Carnegie Mellon University
• Clark University
• Drexel University
• Medical College of Pennsylvania
• Pine Manor College
• University of Massachusetts Boston
• University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
• Washington and Jefferson College
• University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg

Teresa Heinz Kerry was also awarded the prestigious Albert Schweitzer Gold Medal for Humanitarianism in 2003. She has been elected as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has also served as a trustee of the New England prep school, St. Paul's School, which her husband John Kerry attended.

Environmental Programs and Advocacy

Teresa Heinz Kerry has contributed to the environmental movement through many programs and outreach efforts, including but not limited to:

• In 1990, she co-founded the Alliance To End Childhood Lead Poisoning (which later was renamed the Alliance for Healthy Homes), through the first environmental grant of the Vira I. Heinz Endowment. The current website of the Alliance for Healthy Homes lists her as an "honorary board member" and praises her as "One of the foremost advocates on children's health and environmental issues."
• In 1992, she attended the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, as a presidentially-appointed member of a delegation representing non-governmental organizations at the Summit.
• In 1993, she co-founded, with her future husband Senator John Kerry, and environmentalist academic Dr. Anthony D. Cortese, the organization Second Nature, which brings "Education for Sustainability" to college campuses.
• In 1993 she founded the Heinz Awards, including a category for outstanding contributions to the environment.
• In 1995, through a $20 million grant from the Heinz Endowments, provided initial funding for The Heinz Center, "a nonprofit institution dedicated to improving the scientific and economic foundation for environmental policy through multisectoral collaboration among industry, government, academia, and environmental organizations."
• Since 1996, Heinz has hosted an annual "Women's Health and the Environment" conference series.
• Founded the Teresa Heinz Scholars for Environmental Research program, which annually awards eight $10,000 awards for doctoral dissertation support and eight $5,000 awards for master's thesis support, for research having "public policy relevance that increases society's understanding of environmental concerns and proposed solutions."
• Heinz is currently a board member of the Environmental Defense Fund.
• Co-author with her husband John Kerry, of This Moment on Earth: Today's New Environmentalists and Their Vision for the Future, to be published in March 2007.

Women's economic security programs and advocacy

• In 1995, the book Pensions in Crisis: Why the system is failing America and how you can protect your future (later republished as The Pension Book) was published, with support from the Teresa and H. John Heinz III Foundation, and a foreword by Teresa Heinz.
• Spurred by the issues uncovered by Pensions in Crisis, Teresa Heinz and her foundation created the Women's Retirement Initiative, to "extend that investigation and examine how the dynamics of our pension and retirement system contribute to the disproportionate rate of poverty among older women."
• In 1996, the Heinz Foundations created WISER, the Women's Institute for a Secure Retirement.

Wealth

Teresa Heinz is the life estate beneficiary or outright beneficiary of her husband's trusts, making her either extremely wealthy in her own name, or powerful as a trustee of Heinz family wealth. Sen. Kerry is wealthy in his own right, though not to the same degree, since he became a trust fund beneficiary of his mother's and Forbes family trusts. Sen. Kerry and Teresa Heinz signed a prenuptial agreement and have kept their premarital assets separate.

To date, Teresa Heinz has declined to disclose her personal tax returns, citing family trusts and privacy. She is estimated to be worth between $750 million and $1.2 billion. According to her most recently released income tax of 2003, the Kerry and Heinz paid an effective federal income tax rate of 12%. Most of her income was derived from tax-free municipal bonds, which explains the low rate.

Both Teresa and her husband live an affluent life. Together they enjoy five homes at notable addresses. These include a six-floor, $7 million townhome in Boston's Beacon Hill neighborhood, a $9 million ocean-front home on Nantucket, a $5 million ski retreat in Idaho, a $4 million estate in Fox Chapel, Pennsylvania near the Heinz family's home base of Pittsburgh, and a $5 million home in Washington, D.C.'s Georgetown neighborhood. The couple also owns a $1 million yacht and a $35 million Gulf Stream Jet; it should be noted that the Heinz family owns most of these properties.

Politics

Teresa Heinz was a registered Republican for most of her voting career, the same as her first husband, Senator Heinz, and she remained a registered Republican despite being married to the Democratic Senator John Kerry. However, in January 2003, she changed her registration to the Democratic Party. Later in 2004, she reportedly changed her name from Teresa Heinz to Teresa Heinz Kerry during her husband's presidential run. After her husband's defeat, and shortly before she gave a speech to the National Council for Research on Women in January of 2005, she changed her name back to Teresa Heinz.[1]

She is said to have been encouraged to run for her husband's Heinz vacant Senate seat after his death. However, Heinz declined and also refused to endorse Republican Rick Santorum's bid for the seat. She publicly denounced him as the "antithesis" of her late husband, and later calling him "Forrest Gump with attitude." It was also rumored that she would challenge Santorum in 2006, running for her late first husband's seat as a Democrat, but this allegation was declined once again. Instead, the Democratic nomination ended up going to Pennsylvania state treasurer Bob Casey, Jr.

Two of her sons are believed to be Democrats. Christopher and André Heinz both spoke at the Democratic National Convention in July, 2004. Christopher is believed to be considering running for the House or the Senate from the state of Pennsylvania. John Heinz IV keeps a lower profile, and his political leanings are unclear.

Had Senator Kerry been elected President, Heinz Kerry would have been only the second foreign-born First Lady of the United States and the first to be a naturalized citizen. British-born Louisa Adams, wife of President John Quincy Adams, was born in London, but since her father was an American diplomat she was considered an American citizen from birth.

Public relations

Teresa Heinz has a reputation in the media as a very direct personality. A crew of Newsweek magazine reporters—who were given exclusive behind-the-scenes access to the Kerry campaign—portrayed her as "sullen" and a "distraction," a woman with "sometimes erratic behavior" that led to her not being allowed to travel and not speak without chaperones, a policy the reporters called "Managing Teresa."

The Tribune-Review incident

Right before the 2004 Democratic National Convention in late July 2004, Teresa Heinz hit her first public relations snafu when being questioned by Colin McNickle, editor of the opinion page of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

During her speech on declining civility during political campaigns, Teresa Heinz stated, "We need to turn back some of the creeping, un-Pennsylvanian and sometimes un-American traits that are coming into some of our politics."

After the speech she passed through a crowd of supporters and journalists and McKnickle asked her what she meant about "un-American activities."

Here is a transcript of the exchange with McNickle that was recorded by The Patriot-News of Harrisburg and WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh, which aired the exchange on its 11 o'clock news:

McNickle: "What did you mean?"

Teresa Heinz: "I didn't say that. I didn't say that."

McNickle: "I was just asking what you said."

Teresa Heinz: "Why do you put those words in my mouth?"

McNickle: "You said something about 'un-American activity.'"

A Kerry campaign worker attempted to stop the questioning.

Teresa Heinz: "No, I didn't say that, I did not say 'activity' or 'un-American.' Those were your words."

She walked away, paused, consulted Gov. Ed Rendell, D-Pennsylvania, and returned to McNickle.

Teresa Heinz: "Are you from the Tribune-Review?"

McNickle: "Yes, I am."

Teresa Heinz: "Understandable. You said something I didn't say -- now shove it." The televised incident can be viewed at http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/3576476/detail.html.

Teresa Heinz's choice of words spurred controversy. New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton showed public support for Teresa and her comments by saying: "A lot of Americans are going to say, 'Good for you, you go, girl,' and that's certainly how I feel about it."[2]

Former WTAE-TV news anchor Scott Baker captured Teresa Heinz's remarks on tape and insisted McNickle had asked "a pretty straightforward question."

"He was not combative. I think he seemed to be polite. The question that he asked was one that had already occurred to me," Baker said. "Clearly, she was rankled by it."

Laura Bush incident

In an interview published in the USA Today, also in July 2004, Teresa Heinz was asked about the differences between the current First Lady and herself:

"Well, you know, I don't know Laura Bush. But she seems to be calm, and she has a sparkle in her eye, which is good. But I don't know that she's ever had a real job—I mean, since she's been grown up. So her experience and her validation comes from important things, but different things."

Almost immediately news stations across the country picked up the story. Talk shows and news stations heavily criticized Teresa Heinz, stating Laura Bush has been employed first as a teacher, and as a librarian.

Teresa retracted the statement later saying she was "sincerely sorry" for the remark: "I had forgotten that Mrs. Bush had worked as a schoolteacher and librarian, and there couldn't be a more important job than teaching our children," Teresa Heinz said. "As someone who has been both a full time mom and full time in the workforce, I know we all have valuable experiences that shape who we are. I appreciate and honor Mrs. Bush's service to the country as first lady, and am sincerely sorry I had not remembered her important work in the past."

Senior Bush campaign adviser Karen Hughes called Teresa's remarks "inappropriate" and claimed the apology made things worse: "I think it's very nice that she apologized, but in some ways the apology almost made the comment worse because she seems to have forgotten that being a mother is a real job. I think it's just unfortunate to try to disparage women who have made the choice of making their families a priority."

Laura Bush brushed the whole thing off saying, "It didn't matter to me. It didn't hurt my feelings. It was perfectly all right that she apologized. She didn't have to apologize. I know how tough it is. And actually I know those trick questions."

External links

• JohnKerry.com - About Teresa
• Polite society anticipates Teresa's pizazz - from the Washington Times
• The Heinz Endowments (the Howard Heinz Endowment and the Vira I. Heinz Endowment)
• Visitsunvalley.com - This Moment On Earth