Sargent Shriver

Robert Sargent Shriver
21st United States Ambassador to France
In office April 22, 1968 – March 25, 1970
President	Lyndon B. Johnson Richard Nixon
Preceded by	Charles E. Bohlen
Succeeded by	Arthur K. Watson
1st Director of the Peace Corps
In office March 22, 1961 – February 28, 1966[1]
President	John F. Kennedy Lyndon B. Johnson
Preceded by	(None)
Succeeded by	Jack Vaughn
1st Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity
In office 1965–1968
President	Lyndon B. Johnson
Preceded by	(None)
Succeeded by	Bertrand Harding
Born	November 9, 1915 (1915-11-09) (age 95) Westminster, Maryland
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Eunice Kennedy Shriver (1953–2009, her death)
Children	Robert Sargent Shriver III Maria Owings Shriver Timothy Perry Shriver Mark Kennedy Shriver Anthony Paul Kennedy Shriver
Alma mater	Yale University Yale Law School
Profession	Attorney
Religion	Roman Catholic
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	United States of America
Service/branch	United States Navy
Years of service	1941 – 1945
Rank	Lieutenant
Battles/wars	World War II
Awards	World War II Victory Medal, Purple Heart, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal[2]

Robert Sargent Shriver, Jr. (born November 9, 1915) is an American Democratic politician and activist. Known as "Sargent", Shriver is best known as part of the Kennedy family, the driving force behind the creation of the Peace Corps, and the Democratic Party's replacement candidate for U.S. vice president — having replaced nominee Thomas Eagleton, who resigned from the ticket — during the 1972 U.S. presidential election.

Early life and career

Shriver was born in Westminster, Maryland to Robert Sargent Shriver, Sr. and his wife Hilda Shriver. Of German ancestry, the Shriver family is descended from David Shriver, who signed the Maryland Constitution and Bill of Rights at Maryland's Constitutional Convention of 1776.^[3] He spent his high school years at the Canterbury School in New Milford, Connecticut, which he attended on a full scholarship. After graduating, Shriver spent the summer in Germany as part of the Experiment in International Living, returning in the fall of 1934 to begin college at Yale University. He received his bachelor's degree in 1938 from Yale University, where he was a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity (Phi chapter) and Scroll and Key Society. He was Chairman of the Yale Daily News. Shriver went on to attend Yale Law School, earning an LL.B. degree in 1941.

An early opponent of American involvement in World War II, Shriver was a founding member of America First, an organization that tried to keep America out of the war. Still, Shriver volunteered for the United States Navy, saying he had a duty to serve his country even if he disagreed with its policies. He spent five years in active duty, rising to the rank of lieutenant. Shriver ultimately retracted his early opposition to the war.

Shriver's involvement with the Kennedy family began when family patriarch Joseph Kennedy, Sr. hired him to manage the Merchandise Mart, part of Kennedy's business empire, in Chicago, Illinois.

After a seven-year courtship, Shriver married Eunice Kennedy, a sister of then-Senator John F. Kennedy, on May 23, 1953 at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City.^[4] They had five children: Robert Sargent 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), and Anthony Paul Kennedy Shriver (born July 20, 1965).

Shriver is admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia, Illinois, New York, and at the U.S. Supreme Court.^[5]

A devout Catholic, Shriver attends daily Mass and always carries a rosary of well-worn wooden beads.^[6]

Political career

John F. Kennedy

When John 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 served as the first director of the Peace Corps.

Lyndon B. Johnson

After Kennedy's assassination, Shriver continued to serve as Director of the Peace Corps and served as Special Assistant to President Lyndon Johnson. Under Johnson, he created the Office of Economic Opportunity with William B. Mullins and served as the first Director.^[7]

Political activism

Shriver founded numerous social programs and organizations, including Head Start, VISTA, Job Corps, Community Action, Upward Bound, Foster Grandparents, Special Olympics, Legal Services, the National Clearinghouse for Legal Services (now the Shriver Center), Indian and Migrant Opportunities and Neighborhood Health Services, and directed the Peace Corps. Shriver also ran the War on Poverty during Johnson's tenure as president. He was such an effective leader, that Job Corps and Adams and Associates dedicated a Center to his name in 1999. The Job Corps Center (Shriver Job Corps) is located in Devens, Massachusetts.

Ambassador to France

Shriver and JFK

Shriver served as U.S. ambassador to France from 1968 to 1970, becoming a quasi-celebrity among the French for bringing what Time magazine called "a rare and welcome panache" to the normally sedate world of international diplomacy.

Vice Presidential candidate

Shriver returned to elective politics in 1972, when George McGovern chose him as his Vice Presidential running mate after McGovern's first pick, Thomas Eagleton, resigned from the Democratic ticket following revelations of past mental health treatments. The McGovern-Shriver ticket lost to Republican incumbents Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew. He remains to date the most recent pro-life candidate to have been in a Democratic Party presidential ticket.

Shriver sought the Democratic nomination for President in 1976. His candidacy was short and he returned to private life.^[8]

Life after politics

He was associated with the Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson law firm in the Washington, D.C., where he specialized in international law and foreign affairs, beginning in 1971.^[5] He retired as partner in 1986 and was then named of counsel to the firm.^[9]

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 of Special 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 the Baltimore Orioles along with his eldest son Bobby Shriver, Eli Jacobs and Larry Lucchino from 1989^[10] to 1993.

Shriver was diagnosed with Alzheimer'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.^[11] In July 2007, Shriver's son-in-law, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, speaking in favor of stem-cell research, said that Shriver's Alzheimer's disease had advanced to the point that "Today, he does not even recognize his wife."^[12] Maria Shriver discusses her father's worsening condition in the HBO documentary series The Alzheimer's Project, including describing a moment when she decided to no longer try to correct his various delusions.^[13]

On August 11, 2009, Shriver's wife of 56 years, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, died at the age of 88. He attended his wife's wake and funeral mass in Centerville and Hyannis, Massachusetts.

Two weeks later, on August 29, 2009, he attended the funeral of his brother-in-law, Edward M. Kennedy in Boston, Massachusetts.

Legacy

In 1993, Shriver received the Franklin D. Roosevelt Freedom From Want Award. On August 8, 1994, Shriver received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian honor, from President Bill Clinton.^[9]

The National Clearinghouse for Legal Services (renamed the National Center on Poverty Law in 1995) was re-named the Shriver Center in 2002 and each year awards a Sargent Shriver Award for Equal Justice. ^[14]

Sargent Shriver Elementary School, located in Silver Spring, Maryland, is named after Shriver.^[15][16][17]

In January 2008, a documentary film about Shriver aired on PBS, titled American Idealist: The Story of Sargent Shriver. ^[18]

Electoral history

United States presidential election, 1972

• Richard Nixon/Spiro Agnew (R) (inc.) - 47,168,710 (60.7%) and 520 electoral votes (49 states carried)
• George McGovern/Sargent Shriver (D) - 29,173,222 (37.5) and 17 electoral votes (1 state and D.C. carried)
• John Hospers/Theodora Nathan (Libertarian) - 3,674 (0.00%) and 1 electoral votes (Republican faithless elector)
• John G. Schmitz/Thomas J. Anderson (AI) - 1,100,868 (1.4%) and 0 electoral votes
• Linda Jenness/Andrew Pulley (Socialist Workers) - 83,380 (0.1%)
• Benjamin Spock/Julius Hobson (People's) - 78,759 (0.1%)

1976 Democratic presidential primaries^[19]

• Jimmy Carter - 6,235,609 (39.27%)
• Jerry Brown - 2,449,374 (15.43%)
• George Wallace - 1,955,388 (12.31%)
• Mo Udall - 1,611,754 (10.15%)
• Henry M. Jackson - 1,134,375 (7.14%)
• Frank Church - 830,818 (5.23%)
• Robert Byrd - 340,309 (2.14%)
• Sargent Shriver - 304,399 (1.92%)
• Unpledged - 283,437 (1.79%)
• Ellen McCormack - 238,027 (1.50%)
• Fred R. Harris - 234,568 (1.48%)
• Milton Shapp - 88,254 (0.56%)
• Birch Bayh - 86,438 (0.54%)
• Hubert Humphrey - 61,992 (0.39%)
• Ted Kennedy - 19,805 (0.13%)
• Lloyd Bentsen - 4,046 (0.03%)
• Terry Sanford - 404 (0.00%)

See also

• List of United States political appointments that crossed party lines

References

Portrayals in film

The film Too Young the Hero (1988), about the life of Calvin Graham, features a scene during World War II in which Graham (played by Rick Schroder) meets Shriver (played by Carl Meuller).

The film W. (2008), about the life of George W. Bush, features Matt Sigloch as Shriver.

Further reading

• Clinton, Bill (2004). My Life. New York: Knopf. ISBN 0091795273. 
• Stossel, Scott (2004). Sarge: The Life and Times of Sargent Shriver. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books. 

External links

• Biography at the Sargent Shriver Peace Institute
• Biography at the Shriver Center
• Peace Corps biography
• Listing at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson Law Firm
• American Idealist Movie, PBS
• Ancestor David Shriver
• Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law

Directors of the Peace Corps Shriver • Vaughn • Blatchford • O'Donnell • Hess • Craw • Dellenback • Payton • Celeste • Ruppe • Coverdell • Chao • Bellamy • Gearan • Schneider • Vasquez • Tschetter • Williams

United States Ambassadors to France Envoys Benjamin Franklin, Arthur Lee, Silas Deane (substituted by John Adams in 1778) 1776–1779 Ministers Plenipotentiary Franklin 1778–85 · Jefferson 1785–89 · Short 1790–92 · Morris 1792–94 · Monroe 1794–96 · Pinckney 1796–97 · Livingston 1801–04 · Armstrong 1804–10 · Russell (chargé d'affaires) 1811 Barlow 1811–12 · Crawford 1813–15 Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary Gallatin 1816–23 · Brown 1824–29 · Rives 1829–32 · Harris (chargé d'affaires) 1833 · Livingston 1833–35 · Barton (chargé d'affaires) 1835 · Cass 1836–42 · King 1844–46 · Rush 1847–49 · Rives 1849–53 · Mason 1853–59 · Faulkner 1860–61 · Dayton 1861–64 · Bigelow 1865–66 · Dix 1866–69 · Washburne 1869–77 · Noyes 1877–81 · Morton 1881–85 · McLane 1885–89 · Reid 1889–92 · Coolidge 1892–93 Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Eustis 1893–97 · Porter 1897–05 · McCormick 1905–07 · White 1907–09 · Bacon 1909–12 · Herrick 1912–14 · Sharp 1914–1919 · Wallace 1919–21 · Herrick 1921–29 · Edge 1929–33 · Straus 1933–36 · Bullitt 1936–40 · Leahy 1941–42 · Tuck (chargé d'affaires) 1942 · Caffery 1944–49 · Bruce 1949–52 · Dunn 1952–53 · Dillon 1953–57 · Houghton 1957–61 · Gavin 1961–62 · Bohlen 1962–68 · Shriver 1968–70 · Watson 1970–72 · Irwin 1973–74 · Rush 1974–77 · Hartman 1977–81 · Galbraith 1981–85 · Rodgers 1985–89 · Curley 1989–93 · Harriman 1993–97 · Rohatyn 1997–2000 · Leach 2001–05 · Stapleton 2005–09 · Rivkin 2009–