Sargent Shriver

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Sargent Shriver

AKA Robert Sargent Shriver, Jr.

Born: 9-Nov-1915
Birthplace: Westminster, MD
Died: 18-Jan-2011
Location of death: Bethesda, MD [1]
Cause of death: Alzheimer's
Remains: Buried, St. Francis Xavier Cemetery, Centerville, MA

Gender: Male
Religion: Roman Catholic [2]
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Activist, Government

Nationality: United States
Executive summary: First Director of the Peace Corps

Military service: US Navy (1941-45)

Devoutly Catholic, Sargent Shriver was inspired by the work of Dorothy Day, and said that beginning in high school and throughout his life he asked himself every evening, "What have I done to improve the lot of humanity?"

While attending Yale he became a founding member of the America First Committee, a 1930s pacifist group, but when America was drawn into the Second World War he promptly enlisted in the Navy. After the war he earned his law degree, worked as a lawyer and marketing executive, and headed the National Conference on Prevention and Control of Juvenile Delinquency in the late 1940s. Later, as president of the Chicago Board of Eduction, he laid out the city school district's first desegregation plans in the late 1950s.

He was a key behind-the-scenes player in the 1960 Presidential campaign of his brother-in-law, John F. Kennedy. Beginning in 1961, at Kennedy's request, he served as the founding Director of the Peace Corps, leading the new organization's endeavor to send Americans as volunteer helpers in impoverished nations, and fending off Congressional efforts to encumber the Peace Corps with a Cold War anti-Soviet mandate. After Kennedy's assassination Shriver became an informal and later formal advisor to President Lyndon B. Johnson, spearheading the new administration's high-level talent hunt for cabinet posts and leadership appointments, and acting as "commanding general" in Johnson's sweeping "war on poverty" agenda — including the creation of Head Start, Job Corps, and Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA). He also presided over the Paris Peace Talks, which sought to end America's involvement in the Vietnam War.

At the close of the Johnson administration and for the first year of Richard M. Nixon's presidency, he served as US Ambassador to France. He was Senator George McGovern's Vice Presidential running mate on the 1972 Democratic ticket, filling in after Senator Thomas Eagleton, McGovern's first choice, was forced to withdraw. Later in that decade, Shriver worked with the Kennedy Institute of Ethics to establishe what were called the "Trialogue", a series of meetings between Middle Eastern Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders. His wife, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founded the Special Olympics in 1968, and Shriver was President of that organization in the 1980s.

The National Center on Poverty Law was re-named in his honor in 1995, and is now the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law. He is also the namesake of an annual award for outstanding contributions to justice, the Sargent Shriver Award for Equal Justice. He died in 2011, at the age of 95.

[1] Suburban Hospital, Bethesda, MD.

[2] Our Lady of Mercy Church, Potomac, MD.

Father: Robert Sargent Shriver (mills and tannery owner, b. 12-Jan-1878, d. 12-Jun-1942)
Mother: Hilda Shriver (cousin, b. 2-Nov-1882, m. 1-Jun-1910, d. 18-Aug-1977)
Wife: Eunice Kennedy Shriver (b. 10-Jul-1921, m. 23-May-1953, d. 11-Aug-2009)
Son: Bobby Shriver (Mayor of Santa Monica, b. 28-Apr-1954)
Daughter: Maria Shriver (journalist, First Lady of California, b. 06-Nov-1955)
Son: Timothy Perry Shriver (CEO of Special Olympics, b. 29-Aug-1959)
Son: Mark Kennedy Shriver (Save the Children exec, b. 17-Feb-1964)
Son: Anthony Paul Kennedy Shriver (CEO of Best Buddies International, b. 20-Sep-1965)

High School: Georgetown Prepatory School, North Bethesda, MD
University: BA, Yale University (1938)
Law School: LLB, Yale Law School (1941)

Special Olympics President (1984-90)
Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson Partner (1970-86)
US Ambassador to France (1968-70)
White House Staff Special Ass't to Pres Lyndon B. Johnson (1965-68)
Office of Economic Opportunity Director (1964-68)
Peace Corps Director (1961-66)
Board of Education Chicago (President, 1955-60)
Merchandise Mart of Chicago Ass't GM (1948-55)
Joseph P. Kennedy Enterprises Associate (1946-48)
Newsweek Assistant Editor (1945-46)
FDR Freedom From Want Award 1993
Presidential Medal of Freedom 1994
New York State Bar Association 1941
Illinois State Bar Association 1959
US Supreme Court Bar 1969
District of Columbia Bar 1971
American Commission on East-West Accord Board of Advisors (1978-2010)
America First Committee Founding Member, 1939
American Iranian Council Honorary Board
Boy Scouts of America National Council
Becket Fund for Religious Liberty Board of Advisors
Delta Kappa Epsilon Fraternity
Economic Club of Chicago
Scroll and Key
Delta Kappa Epsilon Fraternity
America First Committee Founding Member, 1939
American Council on Germany Board of Directors
American Iranian Council Advisor
Arms Control Association Board of Directors
Gore 2000
John Kerry for President
Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation
Knights of Columbus
National Catholic Conference for Interracial Justice Past President
Navy League
Special Olympics Chairman of the Board (1990-94)
Susan B. Anthony List
Veterans of Foreign Wars
Shrapnel Injury Battle of Guadalcanal
Wedding: Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver (1986)
Roast: Tim Russert (1993)
Funeral: Ted Kennedy (2009)
Kennedy Family
German Ancestry
Risk Factors: Alzheimer's

SPORTS FRANCHISE HISTORY
Baltimore Orioles Minority Owner (1989-93)

Author of books:
Point of the Lance (1964, non-fiction; alternate title The Challenge and the Chance)

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