Peace Corps Founder Sargent Shriver Dies at 95
- Posted on January 18, 2011 at 6:03pm by
Meredith Jessup
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BETHESDA, Md. (AP) — R. Sargent Shriver, the Kennedy in-law whose career included directing the Peace Corps, fighting the War on Poverty and, less successfully, running for office, died Tuesday. He was 95.
Sargent Shriver, with President Bill Clinton in 1996 (AP)
Shriver, who announced in 2003 that he had Alzheimer’s disease, had been hospitalized for several days. The family said he died surrounded by those he loved.
His death came less than two years after his wife, Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who died Aug. 11, 2009, at age 88. The Kennedy family suffered a second blow that same month when Sen. Edward Kennedy died.
Speaking outside Suburban Hospital in Maryland, Anthony Kennedy Shriver, said his father was “with my mom now,” and called his parents’ marriage a great love story.
At Eunice Shriver’s memorial service, their daughter Maria Shriver said her father let her mother “rip and he let her roar, and he loved everything about her.” He attended in a wheelchair.
The handsome Shriver was often known first as an in-law – brother-in-law of President John F. Kennedy and, late in life, father-in-law of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
But his achievements were historic in their own right and changed millions of lives: the Peace Corps‘ first director and the leader of President Lyndon Johnson’s “War on Poverty,” out of which came such programs as Head Start and Legal Services.
President Barack Obama called Shriver “one of the brightest lights of the greatest generation.”
“Over the course of his long and distinguished career, Sarge came to embody the idea of public service,” Obama said in a statement.
Within the family, Shriver was sometimes relied upon for the hardest tasks. When Jacqueline Kennedy needed the funeral arranged for her assassinated husband, she asked her brother-in-law.
“He was a man of giant love, energy, enthusiasm, and commitment,” the Shriver family said in a statement. “He lived to make the world a more joyful, faithful, and compassionate place. He centered everything on his faith and his family. He worked on stages both large and small but in the end, he will be best known for his love of others. ”
In public, Shriver spoke warmly of his famous in-laws, but the private relationship was often tense. As noted in Scott Stossel’s “Sarge,” an authorized 2004 biography, he was a faithful man amid a clan of womanizers, a sometimes giddy idealist labeled “the house Communist” by the family. His willingness to work for Johnson was seen as betrayal by some family members.
The Kennedys granted him power, but also withheld it. He had considered running for governor of Illinois in 1960, only to be told the family needed his help for John Kennedy’s presidential campaign. Hubert Humphrey considered him for running mate in the 1968 election, but resistance from the Kennedys helped persuade Humphrey to change his mind.
When Shriver finally became a candidate, the results were disastrous: He was George McGovern’s running mate in the 1972 election, but the Democrats lost in a landslide to President Richard M. Nixon.
Four years later, Shriver’s presidential campaign ended quickly, overrun by a then-little-known Georgia governor named Jimmy Carter.
Although known for his Kennedy connections, Shriver, born in 1915, came from a prominent old Maryland family. His father was a stockbroker, but he lost most of his money in the crash of 1929.
Shriver went on a scholarship to Yale, then went on to Yale Law School. He served in the Navy in the Pacific during World War II.
Returning home, he became an assistant editor at Newsweek magazine. About this time, too, he met Eunice Kennedy and was immediately taken by her. They married in 1953 in New York’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
Her father, Joseph P. Kennedy, hired him to manage the Kennedy-owned Merchandise Mart in Chicago. He was a big success on the job and in Chicago in general – and even was elected head of the school board in 1955.
Shriver had fought for integration in Chicago and helped persuade John F. Kennedy to make a crucial decision in the 1960 campaign despite other staffers’ fears of a white backlash: When the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was jailed in Georgia that fall, Kennedy phoned King’s wife and offered support. His gesture was deeply appreciated by King’s family and brought the candidate crucial support.
Soon after taking office, Kennedy named Shriver to fulfill a campaign promise to start the Peace Corps. Although it was belittled by some as a “kiddie corps,” Shriver quickly built the agency into an international institution.
After Kennedy’s assassination, in 1963, Johnson called upon Shriver to run another program which then existed only as a high-minded concept: the War on Poverty.
Shriver’s efforts demonstrated both the reach and frustrations of government programs: Head Start remains respected for offering early education for poor children, and Legal Services gave the poor an opportunity for better representation in court.
But other Shriver initiatives suffered from bureaucracy, feuds with local officials and a struggle for funds as Johnson devoted more and more money to the Vietnam War.
In early 1968, with Shriver rumored to be on the verge of quitting, Johnson offered him the ambassadorship to France. He accepted it even though some family members wanted Shriver to support Sen. Robert Kennedy’s presidential candidacy instead.
In Paris, Shriver won many French fans, but he left the post for a job in private business not long after Nixon took office in 1969.
He campaigned for congressional Democrats in 1970, and two years later McGovern drafted him to replace Sen. Thomas Eagleton of Missouri as his running-mate. Eagleton dropped out because of questions about his medical history.
Shriver was good humored that he had been McGovern’s seventh pick for the job – after brother-in-law Ted Kennedy, among others. He named his campaign plane “Lucky 7.”
In September 1975, Shriver joined an already crowded race for the 1976 Democratic nomination. But he dropped out in March 1976 after poor showings in the early primaries and never again sought office. He instead worked with Special Olympics and other causes.
In 1994, Shriver received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, from President Bill Clinton.
Meanwhile, daughter Maria Shriver gained fame as an NBC newswoman and, since 2003, first lady of California. The Shrivers also had four sons – Robert, Timothy, Mark and Paul Anthony. Mark Shriver was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates in 1995 and ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2002. They also had 19 grandchildren.
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Bronco II
Posted on January 19, 2011 at 11:05amSo I will ask is POVERTY OVER wow good thing it only took how long and how much money to get it done.With all due respect to the family.
Report Post »mickrussom
Posted on January 19, 2011 at 3:04amIs this quite possibly one of the only people who isnt sickening in the Kennedy sphere? Arnold the traitor RINO is certainly a big piece of crap.
Report Post »TennesseeConservative
Posted on January 19, 2011 at 1:34amAll have sinned and come short of the Glory of GOD. I tell you Mother Teresa is waiting her spot in hell, if she did not put her trust in the Messiah, not the pope or her deeds. Repent and believe the good news that Christ died for our sins. Shriver is on his way to hell, if he did not repent and believe the good news,
Report Post »that YESHUA the chosen one from Israel, came to save us from the WRATH of GOD. The wrath is coming on the whole world. Repent and believe the good news.
TotallyBelievableGuy
Posted on January 19, 2011 at 1:51amAre you quite finished speaking in tongues and rolling on the floor?
Report Post »FoxholeAtheist
Posted on January 19, 2011 at 2:08amTennessee, I can almost see the flesh raise up from your temples from the cockroaches crawling around in your brain right now. It reminds me of that scene in Creepshow.
Report Post »stoneflyMT
Posted on January 18, 2011 at 9:11pmi’m not surprised at the idiotic comments on here. Shriver dedicated his life to helping others. But you‘re so blind you can’t be bothered with that. All you see is he was a Democrat and/or a liberal, therefore he must be evil. You people have no shame. The Peace Corps has done far more good in this world than you could ever hope to.
Report Post »trolltrainer
Posted on January 18, 2011 at 9:28pmROFLMAO
So far there has been no negative comments on the man himself and only a couple on some of the programs he was involved with. In contrast, it has only been the liberal trolls that have really posted here. Yet you come in with a post like this? Did you even bother reading the article and comments or are you just gunning for a reaction?
Report Post »dontbotherme
Posted on January 18, 2011 at 8:15pmShriver was a good man who did much to help society. He will be missed but his programs will continue.
Report Post »TennesseeConservative
Posted on January 19, 2011 at 1:19amYou bother me. Thank you for your supreme wisdom. This man was worthless, just like me and you.
Report Post »Center right
Posted on January 18, 2011 at 7:59pmkennedy, no no more.
Please support My new Blog called Freedom Apparatus. I am a Journalism and Mass Communication Major and a Political Science and Government minor, and I also believe that we do not have enough Fiscal Conservastive Journalism in the press (believe me, it is true) and I think we need more. I am still in my first year, but figured that I should get a start now. Thank you, and God Bless you all.
Report Post »Freedom Apparatus—
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Showtime
Posted on January 18, 2011 at 8:53pmYou write very well, and I like your style. Will be visiting your site. Thanks! (Girls, he’s a hottie!)
Report Post »Showtime
Posted on January 18, 2011 at 8:56pmI’ve put you into Favorites.
Report Post »middleclassprophet
Posted on January 18, 2011 at 7:52pmWhat a classless way to joke about the loss of someone’s life who had so much positive influence on the people around him.
Report Post »TennesseeConservative
Posted on January 19, 2011 at 1:14amWell Moron, just goes to show you that just like the bible says, all men DIE and then the judgment. No matter how much good you think he did. You are wrong. The Judge will decide not you. Repent and believe.
Report Post »roostercogburn
Posted on January 18, 2011 at 7:25pmGuess that war on poverty deal didn’t work out too good either.
Report Post »Showtime
Posted on January 18, 2011 at 8:46pmNo, it didn’t. It was another method of “spreading the wealth.”
“President Barack Obama called Shriver ‘one of the brightest lights of the greatest generation.’ ”
Report Post »I guess he did — Shriver was a Democrat.
Has anyone heard Obama say ANYTHING nice about a Republican?
roostercogburn
Posted on January 18, 2011 at 7:24pmThe peace corps, another waste of time and money, can we trim some of the fat from the budget for a change?
Report Post »middleclassprophet
Posted on January 18, 2011 at 7:50pmIt’s ignorant comments like those that makes this site a joke. I feel sorry for people like you.
Report Post »mamawalker
Posted on January 18, 2011 at 8:25pmif the site is such a joke then what does that make you MCP? Oh yes…just a joker…take off your mask and feel free to leave anytime!
Report Post »middleclassprophet
Posted on January 18, 2011 at 7:21pmMy thoughts and prayers go to his family. What a wonderful man he was.
Report Post »jzs
Posted on January 18, 2011 at 9:03pmGlenn Beck and Michele Bachman have established beyond dispute that the Peace Corp (and Americorps) is a civilian army that liberals have established, and which Obama now controls, whose sole purpose is to aid him when the violence Glenn has foretold comes to pass. Make no mistake, this is Obama’s civilian army, no different that the Nazi SS, despite what they claim. Do not love these people, fear them, for they are the right arm of the Government:
Mission:
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps to promote world peace and friendship.
The Peace Corps’ mission has three simple goals:
Helping the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women.
Report Post »Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.
Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.
TotallyBelievableGuy
Posted on January 19, 2011 at 1:25amYou people are sick for hating this man, he was as honorable as any serviceman, and a humanitarian to boot. Sorry if he preferred enacting peace and helping people, rather than starting wars.
Let me just say, that through his good works, he was a better christian than any of you, and whoever slanders him should be ashamed.
Report Post »FoxholeAtheist
Posted on January 19, 2011 at 2:04amJZS, uh, yeah. ‘Trained’ in agriculture and animal husbandry. The people in the peace corps are global civil servants.
Report Post »jzs
Posted on January 19, 2011 at 11:37amIt was a joke fellows. Beck, Bachmann and Alex Jones have all claimed Americorps and the Peace Corp were either secret Obama armies are a way of indoctrinating Americans. You must not come around here very often.
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