Dick was a very well-known attorney and entrepreneur, prior to becoming a public servant, and he was and still is a major philanthropist. His passions are children and literacy. In 1981, Dick created a charitable foundation that bears his name, The Riordan Foundation. It has only one goal, to teach children how to read and write. For children with limited access to books, he created a grant program that awarded thousand-dollar grants to teachers to create libraries in their classroom. This program has donated over a million and a half dollars in the last decade, to serve more than 30,000 children, in grades K through 5.

Through his Rx, his Prescription For Reading Program, the Riordan Foundation has also distributed 20,000 computers, to 2,000 schools, in 40 states. It has enabled the purchase of 112,000 books, for elementary school libraries. Dick was also a founding member of the nationally acclaimed Learn School Reform effort, and a founding board member of LA's BEST, and that stands for Best Educated Students for Tomorrow. 's a very innovative and nationally recognized after-school program, serving thousands of children in Los ' disadvantaged neighborhoods.

I met Dick in 1996, shortly after I moved to Southern California, when he appeared, one of his many appearances, on our nightly “Life and Times” News Magazine Program. I was immediately impressed by his candor. In fact, he instructed me that he had three priorities and one of them, and the most important one for this evening, was reforming Los Angeles' public schools. Now, it's important for those of you from New York, Connecticut and San Antonio, to know that Mayor Riordan had no jurisdiction over the Los Angeles Unified School District, and when he became frustrated with the District's bureaucracy, he led an effort, personally, to elect seven Reform candidates to the School Board. At the end of the election, his candidates held six of the seven Board seats, and as a native New Yorker, that's pretty impressive. Every year, KCET has a gala event, at which we present the KCET Visionary Award to the individual or individuals, who have been visionary in their field of interest. Two years ago, KCET bestowed the award on Dick, and his wonderful wife, Nancy Daily Riordan, who is prominent in the field of children's welfare.

It was, therefore, not at all surprising to me that when I called Dick about a year ago to discuss KCET's plans for this fledgling KCEd project, he was very receptive and immediately said, “I can help you.” That's why I think Dick is here tonight, to help us, to help all of us in what we are about ready to launch. That's why I'm particularly pleased to introduce and to ask him to come to the podium, the honorable Richard J. Riordan.

[Richard Riordan speaks]