Sargent Shriver, Former Brother-in-Law of JFK and RFK, Dies at 95

(1) A picture of SargentShriver during the 1972 presidential campaign and (2) EuniceKennedy Shriver and Sargent Shriver

(USA Today January 19, 2011) R. Sargent Shriver rose to power after marrying into the Kennedy family.  He married Eunice Kennedy, the sister of both John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy in 1953.  Following his marriage to Eunice Kennedy, he built his own legacy by founding and leading some of America's most prominent institutions of peace, justice, and equal opportunity.  He played a prominent role in the formation of the Peace Corps, Head Start, VISTA, and Special Olympics, etc.  These are causes that will more than likely continue long after Shriver's death.  Shriver suffered from Alzheimer's disease and died yesterday at age 95.  He was a politician that never won an election.  He was the vice-presidential candidate during the 1972 presidential race.  He was the second choice of George McGovern for vice president when then Missouri Senator Thomas Eagleton stepped aside.  Shriver was McGovern's running mate.  That race turned out to be lopsided in favor of Richard Nixon as the McGovern/Shriver ticket only carried Massachusetts and the District of Columbia.  Following the election defeat of 1972, Shriver made a long-shot run for president in 1976, but to no avail. 

Shriver was "one of the brightest lights of the greatest generation," President Obama said in a statement.  "Over the course of his long and distinguished career, Sarge came to embody the idea of public service."  Shriver once said: "Nearly everybody in their life needs someone to help then.  I don't care whether you're the greatest self-made man: the fact is, someone has helped you along the way."  For Shriver, the help came along the way of marriage to Eunice Kennedy, who founded Special Olympics in 1968.  She died at 88 in August 2009.  Shriver's daughter, Maria Shriver, was the former first lady of California.  Shriver is married to Arnold Schwarzenegger, former governor of California.  After helping JFK win the 1960 presidential election, Shriver was named the first director of the Peace Corps, a post he held until 1966.  Since its creation, the corps has placed more than 200,000 volunteers in 139 countries.  After Kennedy's assassination in 1963, Shriver added director of Lyndon Johnson's Office of Economic Opportunity to his resume.  He helped direct the war on poverty which led to the creation of Head Start, Job Corps, Volunteers in Service to America, Community Action Partnership, Legal Services, Foster Grandparents and Upward Bound.

"He personified the optimistic spirit of an era and showed us by his example how to turn vision and commitment into action," said Senator Jay Rockefeller, D-W. VA.  In 1967 Shriver founded what became the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, which delivers legal services to low-income people.  Today--the center will receive a $1 million award for exceptional service from the MacArthur Foundation.  From 1968 to 1970, Shriver served as U.S. ambassador to France, but he harbored political aspirations of his own.  He was the second choice in the 1972 presidential ticket for vice president after Thomas Eagleton was dropped from the ticket due to having undergone electroshock therapy for depression.  He made a run for the president in 1976, but finished a distant fifth to Jimmy Carter in Iowa.

For many years in the 1970's and '80's, he served as president and board chairman of Special Olympics.  The organization now serves nearly 3.5 million athletes with intellectual disabilities in more than 170 countries.  In 1994, President Clinton honored Shriver with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.  In 2003, Shriver's family revealed he had Alzheimers.  Shriver had five children:  Robert, Maria, Timothy, Mark and Anthony; and 19 grandchildren.