US political giant dies aged 95
Source: Agencies |
January 20, 2011, Thursday
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SARGENT Shriver, an American politician who spent four decades in public service as a member of the Kennedy family, the first director of the Peace Corps and a key part of Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty, died on Tuesday aged 95.
He had suffered from Alzheimer's disease in his final years and was surrounded by his five children and 19 grandchildren when he died in Suburban Hospital in Maryland, his family said.
Shriver, the Democratic substitute nominee for vice president in 1972 and a presidential candidate in 1976, was an advocate for the poor, who helped launch President Johnson's War on Poverty. He was a force behind social programs such as Head Start and Legal Services.
Known as Sarge, Shriver helped his wife, Eunice Kennedy, who died on August 11, 2009, create the Special Olympics for mentally disabled children and adults in 1968. The Special Olympics, now run by their son Timothy, serves 1.4 million athletes in 150 countries.
It was Shriver's marriage in 1953 to Eunice, daughter of diplomat and businessman Joseph Kennedy, that inducted him into the Kennedy family and its generations of politicians and activists.
Shriver coordinated the crucial Wisconsin and West Virginia presidential primary campaigns for brother-in-law John Kennedy in 1960, and after the election he headed the search for administration appointments and staffers.
Once Kennedy took office, Shriver prepared a report on how to spread peace and understanding between the United States and other nations by forming a volunteer corps that would work to improve the quality of life in other countries.
The report led Kennedy to sign an executive order creating the Peace Corps, a program that came to symbolize the idealistic activism of the 1960s, and Shriver became its first director.
Shriver began his public service in 1955 in Chicago, where he served as head of the Board of Education for five years and directed the Catholic Interracial Council, a group established for the desegregation of the city's schools.
He had suffered from Alzheimer's disease in his final years and was surrounded by his five children and 19 grandchildren when he died in Suburban Hospital in Maryland, his family said.
Shriver, the Democratic substitute nominee for vice president in 1972 and a presidential candidate in 1976, was an advocate for the poor, who helped launch President Johnson's War on Poverty. He was a force behind social programs such as Head Start and Legal Services.
Known as Sarge, Shriver helped his wife, Eunice Kennedy, who died on August 11, 2009, create the Special Olympics for mentally disabled children and adults in 1968. The Special Olympics, now run by their son Timothy, serves 1.4 million athletes in 150 countries.
It was Shriver's marriage in 1953 to Eunice, daughter of diplomat and businessman Joseph Kennedy, that inducted him into the Kennedy family and its generations of politicians and activists.
Shriver coordinated the crucial Wisconsin and West Virginia presidential primary campaigns for brother-in-law John Kennedy in 1960, and after the election he headed the search for administration appointments and staffers.
Once Kennedy took office, Shriver prepared a report on how to spread peace and understanding between the United States and other nations by forming a volunteer corps that would work to improve the quality of life in other countries.
The report led Kennedy to sign an executive order creating the Peace Corps, a program that came to symbolize the idealistic activism of the 1960s, and Shriver became its first director.
Shriver began his public service in 1955 in Chicago, where he served as head of the Board of Education for five years and directed the Catholic Interracial Council, a group established for the desegregation of the city's schools.
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