Robert Sargent Shriver Jr.

Early Life and Marriage

Robert Sargent Shriver Jr. was born on November 9, 1915, in Westminster, Maryland, into an old Maryland Catholic family. He graduated from Yale in 1938 and Yale Law School in 1941, served in the Navy in the Pacific during the Second World War, and afterward went to work for Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., managing the Merchandise Mart in Chicago. There he courted Eunice Kennedy for seven years before they married on May 23, 1953, at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York.

The Shrivers had five children: Robert III (Bobby), Maria, Timothy, Mark and Anthony. Their marriage of 56 years was, by the family's own account, one of the closest partnerships in the clan.

The Peace Corps and the War on Poverty

President Kennedy named his brother-in-law the first Director of the Peace Corps in 1961, and Shriver built the agency from a campaign promise into a program that sent thousands of volunteers abroad within two years. Under Lyndon Johnson he ran the Office of Economic Opportunity, launching Head Start, Job Corps, VISTA, the Community Action Program and Legal Services for the poor. He served as Ambassador to France from 1968 to 1970, was the Democratic nominee for Vice President on George McGovern's ticket in 1972, and ran briefly for President in 1976.

For decades he also served as president and chairman of the Special Olympics, the movement his wife founded in 1968. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994.

Later Years

Shriver was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2003. Eunice died in August 2009; he died on January 18, 2011, in Bethesda, Maryland, at the age of 95, and is buried beside her in Hyannis, Massachusetts.

How was Sargent Shriver related to the Kennedys?

Sargent Shriver married Eunice Kennedy, the fifth child of Joseph and Rose Kennedy, in 1953, making him a brother-in-law of President John F. Kennedy. Their five children include journalist Maria Shriver and Special Olympics chairman Timothy Shriver.

What is Sargent Shriver known for?

He was the founding Director of the Peace Corps, the architect of the War on Poverty programs Head Start, Job Corps and VISTA, U.S. Ambassador to France, and the Democratic vice-presidential nominee in 1972.