BETHESDA, Md. – R. Sargent Shriver, the founder and first
director of the Peace Corps, a major figure in the war on
poverty and the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 1972,
died Jan. 18 in a Bethesda hospital at age 95.
Shriver, who was admitted to Suburban Hospital Jan. 16, had
announced in 2003 that he suffered from Alzheimer’s disease.
A family representative said he died surrounded by those he
loved, among them his five children – Robert, Maria, Tim,
Mark and Anthony – -and several of his 19 grandchildren.
No details on funeral arrangements were available yet.
Shriver’s death came about a year and a half after the death
of his wife, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, a founder of the Special
Olympics and member of one of the most prominent American
Catholic political families of the 20th century. She died
Aug. 11, 2009. About two weeks later her last surviving
brother, Sen. Edward “Ted” Kennedy, died. Sargent Shriver
attended both funerals.
A native of Maryland and lifelong Catholic who attended daily
Mass and was known to carry a well-worn rosary with him,
Shriver was “a man who personified the ideal of Catholic
public service,” Supreme Knight Carl Anderson said in a Jan.
19 statement.
He noted that his death came just two days shy of the 50th
anniversary of the inaugural address of his brother-in-law,
President John F. Kennedy, who issued “a call to public
service,” inviting “Americans to ask what they could do for
their country.”
Anderson said like the late president, Shriver was a Knight
of Columbus.
“We have always been proud to call him a brother Knight,” he
said. “He embodied the values of Catholic social teaching: a
love for the innate dignity of every human person, and a
determination to help improve the lot of those who suffered.
Sargent Shriver was a genuine Catholic gentleman, filled with
faith, and a dedicated, loving husband and father to his five
children.”
Shriver “came to embody the idea of public service” over his
long career, President Barack Obama said in a statement
issued shortly after his death.
He called Shriver “one of the brightest lights of the
greatest generation.”
“His loss will be felt in all of the communities around the
world that have been touched by Peace Corps volunteers over
the past half century and all of the lives that have been
made better by his efforts to address inequality and
injustice here at home,” Obama said.
Robert Sargent Shriver Jr. was born Nov. 9, 1915, in
Westminster, Md. His family eventually settled in New York
City. Shriver graduated from Yale University and its law
school. During World War II, he served overseas as a U.S.
Navy officer. He was awarded a Purple Heart for shrapnel
wounds he received during the bombardment of Guadalcanal.
After the war, Shriver practiced law in New York, then worked
for Newsweek. It was at that time that he came to know the
Kennedy family. The patriarch, Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., hired
Shriver to manage the Merchandise Mart in Chicago. After a
seven-year courtship, Shriver and Eunice Kennedy were married
in New York at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in May 1953, with
Cardinal Francis Spellman presiding.
After President Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, Shriver
accepted President Lyndon Johnson’s offer to administer the
Office of Economic Opportunity, and he became known as the
architect of the administration’s war on poverty. Shriver
later accepted the post of ambassador to France, from 1968 to
1970.
In 1972, he ran for vice president on the 1972 ticket with
George McGovern. Shriver replaced nominee Thomas Eagleton,
who resigned from the ticket. In 1976, Shriver threw his hat
into the presidential ring, but his candidacy was short-lived
and he returned to private life and resumed his law career.
Shriver specialized in international law and foreign affairs
with the Washington firm of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver
& Jacobson. He retired as partner in 1986 but remained
counsel to the firm. He later served as president of the
Special Olympics and then had a stint as the organization’s
chairman of the board.
In addition to creating the Peace Corps, Shriver founded many
social programs and organizations, including Head Start,
VISTA, Job Corps, Community Action, Upward Bound, Foster
Grandparents, Special Olympics (with his wife), Legal
Services, the National Clearinghouse for Legal Services (now
the Shriver Center), Indian and Migrant Opportunities, and
Neighborhood Health Services.
Despite all of that, an AP story noted that above all he was
“known first as an in-law”: brother-in-law of President
Kennedy, Sen. Ted Kennedy and their brother, Robert F.
Kennedy; and father-in-law of former California Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger, who is married to daughter Maria.
