Sargent Shriver, Founder of Peace Corps, Democrat VP Candidate, & JFK Aide, Dead at 95 – Rest in Peace (video)
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on January 18, 2011
Arnold Schwarzenegger is sworn in as 38th Governor Of California, Nov. 2003 - L. to R.: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sargent Shriver, Maria Shriver Schwarzenegger, Eunice Kennedy Shriver
Another member of the Kennedy dynasty — not only by marriage, but by legacy — has passed away. Robert Sargent Shriver, who went by “Sargent” or “Sarge,” has died at age 95. His daughter, Maria, an accomplished newswoman who is married to actor and former governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Shriver was married to Eunice Kennedy Shriver until her death in 2009 — they had been married 56 years. In addition to his development of welfare programs and the Peace Corps, Shriver is considered the most recent pro-life candidate to have been on a Democratic Party presidential ticket.
Shriver was hospitalized this week at a Maryland hospital, in critical condition. News of his being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease was reported in 2003.
Rest in peace, Sarge.
From Washington Post, R. Sargent Shriver dies; public servant founded Peace Corps:
R. Sargent Shriver, 95, an influential public servant who served as the founding director of the Peace Corps, and whose work as head of the 1960s War on Poverty resulted in the creation of Head Start, VISTA and Job Corps has died. He had Alzheimer’s disease.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Sargent Shriver
This ABC news report aired after Shriver was hospitalized:
From CNN, Sargent Shriver dies at 95:
R. Sargent Shriver, who was responsible for launching the U.S. Peace Corps after marrying into the Kennedy family and joining John F. Kennedy’s White House, has died, a family source told CNN.
Shriver, whose full name was Robert Sargent Shriver, was 95. He had suffered for years from Alzheimer’s disease.
After overseeing the Peace Corps launch in the early 1960s, Shriver went on to serve subsequent presidential administrations and kept up his activism throughout his life, becoming a chief architect of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s war on poverty and later heading the Special Olympics, which was founded by his wife, Eunice Kennedy Shriver.
From The Sacramento Bee, Report: Sargent Shriver dies:
Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s father-in-law, Sargent Shriver, died today, according to a report in the National Journal. The 95-year-old former vice-presidential candidate had Alzheimer’s and was hospitalized Sunday in Bethesda, Md.
The Journal and ABC News quoted family sources in breaking the news. Read the National Journal story here.
The Shriver family issued the following statement:
“Bethesda, Md., Tuesday, January 18, 2011, 5:30 p.m. Eastern
“Our dad, Robert Sargent Shriver, Jr., lovingly known as ‘Sarge,’ today went to heaven to join the love of his life, our mother, Eunice Kennedy Shriver. He was surrounded by his five children, five children in-law, and his 19 grandchildren.
“He was a man of giant love, energy, enthusiasm, and commitment. He lived to make the world a more joyful, faithful, and compassionate place. He centered everything on his faith and his family. He worked on stages both large and small but in the end, he will be best known for his love of others. No one ever came into his presence without feeling his passion and his enthusiasm for them. He loved God, he loved Eunice, he loved us, he loved anyone who was a servant of peace, justice or joy. He loved life.
“We pray that his spirit and example will guide us as we accept the challenge of living as he did. We will miss him forever. May the angels and saints and all his family receive him with a party beyond all imagining.
“- The family of Robert Sargent Shriver, Jr.
Sargent Shriver Speaks about Peace Corps in Chicago – 1961
From USA Today, Sargent Shriver, JFK aide and Peace Corps founder, dies:
He rose to power by marrying a Kennedy, but Sargent Shriver built his own legacy by founding and leading some of America’s most prominent institutions of peace, justice and equal opportunity.
The Peace Corps. Head Start. VISTA. Special Olympics. The causes that bear Shriver’s imprint will remain long after John F. Kennedy’s brother-in-law is largely forgotten.
Shriver, who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease and died Tuesday at 95, was a politician who never won an election. He was, in fact, a loser of historic proportions as George McGovern’s Democratic running mate in 1972. Together they won only Massachusetts and the District of Columbia in Richard Nixon’s re-election landslide.
Neither that defeat nor an ineffective run for president in 1976 diminished Shriver’s legacy as one of the nation’s leading peacemakers and anti-poverty warriors through the turbulent 1960s.
“I was deeply saddened to learn about the passing of Sargent Shriver, 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 that “Nearly everybody in their life needs someone to help them. I don’t care whether you’re the greatest self-made man; the fact is, someone has helped you along the way.”
From Los Angeles Times, 1st Peace Corps director, Kennedy in-law, VP nominee Sargent Shriver dies at age 95:
BETHESDA, Md. (AP) — R. Sargent Shriver, the Kennedy in-law whose career included directing the Peace Corps, fighting the War on Poverty and, less successfully, running for office, died Tuesday. He was 95.
Shriver, who announced in 2003 that he had Alzheimer’s disease, had been hospitalized for several days. The family said he died surrounded by those he loved.
His death came less than two years after his wife, Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who died Aug. 11, 2009, at age 88. The Kennedy family suffered a second blow that same month when Sen. Edward Kennedy died.
Speaking outside Suburban Hospital in Maryland, Anthony Kennedy Shriver, said his father was “with my mom now,” and called his parents’ marriage a great love story.
At Eunice Shriver’s memorial service, their daughter Maria Shriver said her father let her mother “rip and he let her roar, and he loved everything about her.” He attended in a wheelchair.
The handsome Shriver was often known first as an in-law — brother-in-law of President John F. Kennedy and, late in life, father-in-law of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
But his achievements were historic in their own right and changed millions of lives: the Peace Corps’ first director and the leader of President Lyndon Johnson’s “War on Poverty,” out of which came such programs as Head Start and Legal Services.
Sargent Shriver and Special Olympics
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Rest in peace – but 95 is a good long life for anyone, even a democrat, so no tears here.