Sargent Shriver | |
|---|---|
 Shriver in 1961 | |
| United States Ambassador to France | |
| In office May 25, 1968 – March 25, 1970 | |
| President | Lyndon B. Johnson Richard Nixon |
| Preceded by | Charles E. Bohlen |
| Succeeded by | Arthur K. Watson |
| Director of theOffice of Economic Opportunity | |
| In office October 16, 1964 – March 23, 1968 | |
| President | Lyndon B. Johnson |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Bertrand Harding |
| 1st Director of thePeace Corps | |
| In office March 22, 1961 – February 28, 1966 | |
| President | John F. Kennedy Lyndon B. Johnson |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Jack Vaughn |
| President of the Chicago Board of Education | |
| In office October 26, 1955 – October 10, 1960 | |
| Preceded by | William B. Traynor |
| Succeeded by | Thomas L. Marshall |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Robert Sargent Shriver Jr. (1915-11-09)November 9, 1915 Westminster, Maryland, U.S. |
| Died | January 18, 2011(2011-01-18) (aged 95) Bethesda, Maryland, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | |
| Children | |
| Relatives |
|
| Education | Yale University (BA,LLB) |
| Signature |  |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Branch/service | United States Navy |
| Years of service | 1941–1945 |
| Rank | Lieutenant commander |
| Unit | USS South Dakota (BB-57) |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
| Awards | |
Robert Sargent Shriver Jr. (November 9, 1915 – January 18, 2011) was an American diplomat, politician, and activist. He was a member of theShriver family by birth, and a member of theKennedy family through his marriage toEunice Kennedy. Shriver was the driving force behind the creation of thePeace Corps, and founded theJob Corps,Head Start,VISTA,Upward Bound,[2] and other programs as the architect of the 1960swar on poverty.[3] He was theDemocratic Party's nominee for vice president in the1972 presidential election.
Born inWestminster, Maryland, Shriver attendedYale University, thenYale Law School, graduating in 1941.[2] An opponent of U.S. entry intoWorld War II, he helped establish theAmerica First Committee but volunteered for theUnited States Navy before the Japaneseattack on Pearl Harbor. During the war, he served in the South Pacific, participating in theNaval Battle of Guadalcanal. After being discharged from the navy, he worked as an assistant editor forNewsweek and met Eunice Kennedy, marrying her in 1953.
He worked on the 1960 presidential campaign of his brother-in-law,John F. Kennedy, and helped establish the Peace Corps after Kennedy's victory. After Kennedy's assassination, Shriver served in the administration ofLyndon B. Johnson and helped establish several anti-poverty programs as director of theOffice of Economic Opportunity from October 16, 1964, to March 22, 1968.[4] He also served as theUnited States Ambassador to France from 1968 to 1970.[2] In 1972, Democratic vice presidential nomineeThomas Eagleton resigned from the ticket, and Shriver was chosen as his replacement. The Democratic ticket ofGeorge McGovern and Shriver lost in alandslide election defeat to Republican PresidentRichard Nixon and Vice PresidentSpiro Agnew. Shriver briefly sought the1976 Democratic presidential nomination but dropped out of the race after the first set of primaries.
After leaving office, he resumed the practice of law, becoming a partner withFried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson. He also served as president of theSpecial Olympics and was briefly a part-owner of theBaltimore Orioles. He was diagnosed withAlzheimer's disease in 2003 and died inBethesda, Maryland, in 2011.[2]
Robert Sargent Shriver Jr. was born inWestminster, Maryland, on November 9, 1915, the younger of two sons. Shriver's parents Robert Sargent Shriver Sr. and Hilda, who had also been born with the surname Shriver, were second cousins.[5] His elder brother was Thomas Herbert Shriver. Shriver was a member of theShriver family[6] that has been in Maryland since 1721 and have occupied theUnion Mills Homestead. His grandfather,Thomas Herbert Shriver, guidedJ. E. B. Stuart to the battle of Gettysburg when Thomas was just seventeen years of age. He was also a descendant ofDavid Shriver,[7] who signed theMaryland Constitution and Bill of Rights at Maryland's Constitutional Convention of 1776.[8]
He spent his high school years atCanterbury School inNew Milford, Connecticut, which he attended on a full scholarship. In his freshman year at Canterbury, he befriended future brother-in-law PresidentJohn F. Kennedy. He was on Canterbury's baseball, basketball, and football teams, became the editor of the school's newspaper, and participated in choral and debating clubs.[9] On June 9, 2023, Shriver was inducted into the Canterbury School Athletic Hall of Fame for all three sports. After graduating from Canterbury School in 1934, Shriver spent the summer inGermany as part of TheExperiment in International Living, returning in the fall of 1934 to enterYale University, where he was elected chairman of theYale Daily News[10] and made a brother in theDelta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, as well as a member of Yale'sScroll and Key society.
An early opponent of American involvement inWorld War II, Shriver was a founding member of theAmerica First Committee, an organization started in 1940 by a group ofYale Law School students, also including future PresidentGerald Ford and future Supreme Court JusticePotter Stewart, which tried to keep the US out of the European war.[11] Nevertheless, Shriver volunteered for theUS Navy before theattack on Pearl Harbor and said he had a duty to serve his country even if he disagreed with its policies. He spent five years on active duty, mostly in theSouth Pacific, serving aboard theUSS South Dakota (BB-57), reaching the rank oflieutenant commander (O-4). He was awarded aPurple Heart for wounds he received during thebombardment ofGuadalcanal.[12]
Shriver's relationship with the Kennedys began when he was working as an assistant editor atNewsweek after his discharge from the Navy. He met Eunice Kennedy at a party in New York, and shortly afterwards, family patriarchJoseph P. Kennedy Sr. asked him to look at diary entries written by his eldest son,Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., who had died in a plane crash while he was on a military mission duringWorld War II. Shriver was later hired to manage theMerchandise Mart, part of Kennedy's business empire, in Chicago,Illinois.[13]
After a seven-year courtship, Shriver marriedEunice Kennedy on May 23, 1953, atSt. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. She was the third daughter of Joseph Kennedy Sr. andRose Kennedy.[14]
They had five children:Robert Sargent "Bobby" Shriver III (born April 28, 1954),Maria Owings Shriver (born November 6, 1955),Timothy Perry Shriver (born August 29, 1959),Mark Kennedy Shriver (born February 17, 1964), andAnthony Paul Kennedy Shriver (born July 20, 1965). The Shrivers were married for 56 years, and often worked together on projects.[15]
Shriver was admitted to practice law in theDistrict of Columbia, Illinois, and New York, and at the US Supreme Court.[16]
A devoutCatholic, Shriver attended dailyMass and always carried arosary of well-worn wooden beads.[17] He was critical ofabortion and was a signatory to "A New Compact of Care: Caring about Women, Caring for the Unborn", which appeared inThe New York Times in July 1992 and stated that "To establish justice and to promote the general welfare, America does not need the abortion license. What America needs are policies that responsibly protect and advance the interest of mothers and their children, both before and after birth."[18]
In May 1954, Shriver was appointed to theChicago Board of Education by Chicago mayorMartin H. Kennelly.[19] On October 26, 1955, Shriver was chosen to serve as president of the Chicago Board of Education by a vote of the board.[19] Shriver would serve in the position of president for five years,[20][21] resigning from the position on October 10, 1960.[22] At the time he became president of the board, he was the second-youngest individual to hold that office, being only 39.[23] At the time,Chicago Public Schools was the second-largestschool district in the United States.[23]
Shriver also served as director of the Catholic Interracial Council, a group created to advocate fordesegregation in Chicago schools.[24]
Shriver considered several runs for statewide office. His first consideration was for the Democratic nomination in the1956 Illinois gubernatorial election. Shriver had been courted by many Chicago Democrats, including MayorRichard J. Daley, but ultimately chose to stay out of the election.[25] The primary was won by Cook County treasurer Herbert C. Paschen, who would be forced to withdraw as the nominee after becoming embroiled in scandals surrounding his work as Treasurer. District Court JudgeRichard B. Austin, was chosen as the replacement and went on to narrowly lose the election to incumbent GovernorWilliam Stratton.
In 1960, Shriver once again received serious courting by Democratic leaders in both Chicago and across the state to enter the Democratic primary for the1960 Illinois gubernatorial election.[26][25] Shriver even met with Mayor Daley and the Cook County Democratic Committee to gauge a possible run at Daley's urging. However his father-in-law,Joseph P. Kennedy, told Shriver he would not be able to run or else he could seriously cripple the Presidential campaign of his brother-in-law,John F. Kennedy. His father-in-law cited the oversaturation of Catholic candidates in Illinois could cost the Democrats the state in November (Kennedy, Shriver, and Daley were all Catholic).[27][25]
WhenJohn F. Kennedy ran for president, Shriver worked as a political and organization coordinator in the Wisconsin and West Virginia primaries. During Kennedy's presidential term, Shriver founded and served as the first director of thePeace Corps from March 22, 1961, to February 28, 1966.[3][28]
Shriver has been credited with convincing a hesitant Kennedy to contactCoretta Scott King after her husband, prominent civil rights activistMartin Luther King, was jailed for civil disobedience inGeorgia in October 1960. Kennedy's phone call to Coretta Scott King was credited with helping to strengthenblack support for Kennedy's candidacy.[29][30][31]
AfterKennedy's assassination, Shriver continued to serve as Director of the Peace Corps and served as Special Assistant to PresidentLyndon Johnson. Under Johnson, he created theOffice of Economic Opportunity and served as its first director.[32] He is known as the "architect" of the Johnson administration's "war on poverty".[3] Hired by President Johnson to be the "salesman" for Johnson'swar on poverty initiative, Shriver initially was "not interested in hearing about community action proposals." TheJob Corps movement was more consistent with his goals. Thus, soon after his appointment, Shriver "moved quickly to reconsider the proposed anti-poverty initiative."[33]
Shriver founded numerous social programs and organizations, includingHead Start,[34]VISTA,Job Corps, Community Action,Upward Bound, Foster Grandparents, Legal Services, the National Clearinghouse for Legal Services (now the Shriver Center), Indian and Migrant Opportunities and Neighborhood Health Services, in addition to directing the Peace Corps. He was active in theSpecial Olympics, which was founded in 1968 by his wife Eunice.
Shriver was awarded thePacem in Terris Peace and Freedom Award in 1967. It was named after a 1963encyclical letter byPope John XXIII that calls upon all people of good will to secure peace among all nations.Pacem in terris isLatin for 'Peace on Earth'.
In 1964 Shriver was considered one of the primary finalists on Johnson's shortlist to be vice president. After weighing the benefits of Shriver as the second spot on the ticket, Johnson ultimately choseHubert Humphrey. Shriver again considered running for Governor of Illinois in the1964 Illinois gubernatorial election.[25] However, he demurred after being asked by President Johnson to stay on and continue leading the creation of many of the aforementioned war on poverty programs that would become part of theGreat Society.[25]
In 1968, Shriver was once again seriously courted by Illinois Democrats for both the1968 Illinois gubernatorial election against increasingly unpopular incumbent GovernorOtto Kerner, Jr. and the1968 United States Senate election in Illinois against incumbent RepublicanEverett Dirksen. Shriver expressed little interest in serving in the Senate, not wanting to be overshadowed by his brothers-in-lawTed Kennedy and specificallyRobert Kennedy, who he had expected to run for president in 1972. To move Shriver toward a run, Daley pitched to Illinois Democratic leaders and Shriver on recruitingIllinois State TreasurerAdlai E. Stevenson III to run for the Senate seat with Shriver running for Governor. Shriver even received Johnson's blessing to make the run as part of Daley's "Dream Ticket", should he choose to do so. However, when Stevenson spoke out against the Vietnam War, Daley rejected Stevenson's candidacy and again tried to recruit Shriver for the Senate seat. Johnson had offered Shriver the post ofU.S. Ambassador to France, but asked for time to consider the offer, during which he considered his potential candidacy. When Stevenson lost Daley's support for the Senate seat and began trying to recruit Shriver again, Shriver decided to accept Johnson's offer of the Ambassadorship.[25]
Shriver served asU.S. Ambassador to France from 1968 to 1970, becoming a quasi-celebrity among the French for bringing whatTime magazine called "a rare and welcome panache" to the normally sedate world of international diplomacy.[35] Upon returning to the United States in 1970, Shriver was speculated to be considering challenging incumbent Democratic GovernorMarvin Mandel for the Democratic nomination for the1970 Maryland gubernatorial election, reports he did nothing to dissuade despite Mandel's sizable campaign fund and being the state's first Jewish Governor. Mandel had been elected by the Maryland Legislature to finish out the termSpiro Agnew had been elected to in 1966, but resigned from after being electedVice President in 1968. After traveling the state to gauge the support a potential candidacy might have, Shriver met with Mandel in the Governor's office. After emerging from the meeting, Shriver declined to be a candidate. Mandel recalled years later, "We had a long discussion, and when it was over, he wasn't a candidate."[36]
During the1972 Democratic National Convention inMiami Beach, Florida,George McGovern considered Shriver as a vice presidential candidate, but his campaign was unable to reach Shriver, who was at the time visitingMoscow,Soviet Union.[37] McGovern then selectedThomas Eagleton instead, who later resigned from the Democratic ticket following revelations of past mental health treatments. Shriver replaced Eagleton on the ticket. The McGovern-Shriver ticket lost to Republican incumbentsRichard Nixon andSpiro Agnew.
Shriver unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination in1976. In the months beforethe primaries began, political observers thought that Shriver would draw strength from legions of former colleagues from the Peace Corps and the war on poverty programs, and he was even seen as an inheritor of the Kennedy legacy, but neither theory proved true.[38] His candidacy was short-lived and he returned to private life.[39]
Shriver was a partner of theFried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson law firm in Washington, D.C., where he specialized in international law and foreign affairs, beginning in 1971.[16] He retired as partner in 1986 and was then namedof counsel to the firm.[citation needed]
In 1981, Shriver was appointed to the Rockefeller University Council, an organization devoted exclusively to research and graduate education in the biomedical and related sciences.
In 1984, he was elected president ofSpecial Olympics by the board of directors; as president, he directed the operation and international development of sports programs around the world. Six years later, in 1990, he was appointed chairman of the board of Special Olympics.
He was an investor in theBaltimore Orioles along with his eldest sonBobby Shriver,Eli Jacobs, andLarry Lucchino from 1989[40] to 1993.
Shriver was diagnosed withAlzheimer's disease in 2003. In 2004, his daughter,Maria, published a children's book,What's Happening to Grandpa?, to help explain Alzheimer's to children. The book gives suggestions on how to help and to show love to an elderly person with the disease.[41] In July 2007, Shriver's son-in-law, California GovernorArnold Schwarzenegger, speaking in favor ofstem-cell research, said that Shriver's Alzheimer's disease had advanced to the point that "Today, he does not even recognize his wife."[42] Maria Shriver discusses her father's worsening condition in a segment for the four-part 2009HBO documentary seriesThe Alzheimer's Project calledGrandpa, Do You Know Who I Am?, including describing a moment when she decided to stop trying to correct his various delusions.[43]
On August 11, 2009, Shriver's wife of 56 years, Eunice, died at the age of 88.[20] He attended her wake and funeral inCenterville andHyannis, Massachusetts.[44] Two weeks later, on August 29, 2009, he attended the funeral of her brotherTed Kennedy in Boston, Massachusetts.[45]
Shriver died on January 18, 2011, inSuburban Hospital inBethesda, Maryland, at age 95.[3][13][46] Shriver's family released a statement calling him "a man of giant love, energy, enthusiasm, and commitment" who "lived to make the world a more joyful, faithful, and compassionate place."[46] PresidentBarack Obama also released a statement, calling Shriver "one of the brightest lights of the greatest generation".[46] Aaron S. Williams, the director of the Peace Corps, said in a statement, "The entire Peace Corps community is deeply saddened by the passing of Sargent Shriver." He further noted that Shriver "served as our founder, friend, and guiding light for the past 50 years" and that "his legacy of idealism will live on in the work of current and future Peace Corps volunteers."[47] He is buried alongside his wife Eunice at St. Francis Xavier Cemetery inCenterville, Massachusetts.
In 1968, he was awarded theLaetare Medal by theUniversity of Notre Dame, the oldest and most prestigious award forAmerican Catholics.[48]
In 1993, Shriver received theFranklin D. RooseveltFreedom From Want Award. On August 8, 1994, Shriver received thePresidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian honor, from PresidentBill Clinton.
In December 1993, theUniversity of Maryland, Baltimore County created the Shriver Center in honor of Shriver and his wife. The center serves as the university's civic engagement, and applied learning organization. The Shriver Center also is home to the Shriver Peaceworker Program and the Shriver Living Learning Community.[49]
The Job Corps dedicated a center to his name in 1998 – the "Shriver Job Corps Center" – located inDevens, Massachusetts.[50] The National Clearinghouse for Legal Services (renamed the National Center on Poverty Law in 1995) was renamed the Shriver Center in 2002 and each year awards a Sargent Shriver Award for Equal Justice.[51]
Sargent Shriver Elementary School, located inSilver Spring, Maryland, is named after him.[52][53]
In January 2008, a documentary film about Shriver aired onPBS, titledAmerican Idealist: The Story of Sargent Shriver.[3]
The Kennedy Shriver Aquatic Center inBethesda, Maryland, is named after him andEunice Kennedy Shriver.[54]
Following his death, Daniel Larison wrote:
Shriver was an admirable, principled, and conscientious man who respected the dignity and sanctity of human life, and he also happened to be a contemporary and in-law of Kennedy. Not only did Shriver represent a "link" with JFK, but he represented a particular culture of white ethnic Catholic Democratic politics that has been gradually disappearing for the last fifty years. A pro-life Catholic, Shriver had been a founding member of theAmerica First Committee, and more famously he was also on the 1972 antiwar ticket with George McGovern. In short, he represented much of what was good in the Democratic Party of his time.[55]
1972 United States presidential election
1976 Democratic presidential primaries[56]
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In fact, McGovern said this week, he probably would have chosen instead of the ill-starred Eagleton at the Miami Beach convention, but Shriver was traveling in Russia and could not be reached by phone to be offered the nomination.
| Government offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| New office | Director of thePeace Corps 1961–1966 | Succeeded by |
| Director of theOffice of Economic Opportunity 1964–1968 | Succeeded by Bertrand Harding | |
| Diplomatic posts | ||
| Preceded by | United States Ambassador to France 1968–1970 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Democraticnominee forVice President of the United States 1972 | Succeeded by |
 | ||
| Envoys to France (1776–1779) |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Ministers Plenipotentiary to France (1778–1815) | ||
| Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to France (1816–1893) | ||
| Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to France (1893–present) | ||
