Though his name has seemingly been lost to history, Sargent Shriver was arguably one of the most important politicians of the 20th Century, even more so than FDR or Ronald Reagan, and that’s ironic – he never wanted to be a politician…
A lawyer by trade, Sargent Shriver only entered the dirty world of politics by virtue of who he was married to: Eunice Kennedy, a member of the famed Kennedy political dynasty.
Early Life
Robert Sargent Shriver Jr. was born on November 5 1915 in Westminster, Maryland, as the second son of Robert Sargent Shriver Sr., a stockbroker, and his wife, Hilda (who also happened to be his second cousin).
His family was of mixed Scottish and German ancestry, descended from German immigrant David Shriver – a signatory on the Maryland Constitution of 1776 – on his father’s side, and Scottish missionaries on his maternal grandmother’s side.
Both sides of his family were devout Catholics, and Robert Sargent Shriver Jr. (known to everyone as simply “Sargent Shriver”) was similarly raised to be a devout Catholic, becoming well-known for always carrying a rosary on his person.
Growing up the son of a stockbroker in the midst of the so-called Roaring Twenties, a time when seemingly everyone was investing in the stock market, a young Shriver grew up in the lap of luxury with his older brother, Thomas.
However, when the market collapsed in 1929, setting off the Great Depression, the Shrivers were among those who suffered the most. For a young Sargent Shriver, this had disastrous consequences for his education…
Now unable to afford a fancy education, Shriver was forced to seek a scholarship to attend high school at Canterbury School in New Milford, Connecticut, where he attended on a full scholarship.
Proving a great student, Shriver became the editor of the school newspaper and a leading members of the school’s debating club, not to mention being on the school’s baseball, basketball and football clubs!
Graduating in 1934, Shriver attended Yale and became a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity and later, the Scroll & Key secret society. He later attended Yale Law School in 1938.
Antiwar Activism
In the summer of 1939, Shriver traveled to France with a group of fellow Yale Law students. Not long after returning to Yale, Britain and France declared war on Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany, thus starting WWII.
Just as with many other students at the time, Shriver vehemently opposed American involvement in the war, believing that Americans did not need to die in yet another European war. Much less one he viewed as “pointless”.
Though many of his peers were content with simply publishing antiwar articles in school/local newspapers and joining protests against American intervention in the war, Shriver was not.
Instead, Sargent Shriver partnered with three of his fellow Yale Law students, future President Gerald R. Ford, future Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart and Robert D. Stuart Jr. (the son of Quaker Oats co-founder R. Douglas Stuart) to found the America First Committee.
Officially established on September 4 1940, the AFC grew quickly and by 1941 had 800,000 fee-paying members and 450 chapters, most of which were located in the state of Illinois.
Military Service
Despite widespread opposition to US intervention in WWII, partly thanks to Shriver’s AFC, the Imperial Japanese Navy chose to attack the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7 1940.
Seeing the attack as a declaration of war, the US declared war on Japan, and later, its ally Germany, thus bringing the US into WWII – exactly what Sargent Shriver and his America First Committee didn’t want.
Despite his personal opposition to the war, Shriver enlisted in the US Navy before the attack, later saying he did it because “[he] had a duty to serve his country even if he disagreed with its policies”.
After graduating Yale in the summer of 1941, Shriver reported to duty and was assigned to the battleship USS South Dakota, where he served as a gunner during two major battles in 1941.
During the first of these battles, the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, Shriver was one of the gunners who helped shoot down seven of the ten Japanese aircraft who that attacked the South Dakota’s group (the Enterprise Group).
In the second battle, the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, Shriver gained notoriety after singlehandedly saving the lives of many of his crewmates after the South Dakota began taking heavy fire from three Japanese ships.
Gravely wounded in his attempts to save his crewmates from almost certain death, Sargent Shriver received the Purple Heart.
In April 1943, it was revealed that one of the South Dakota’s crew members, fellow Purple Heart recipient and gunner, Calvin Graham, was only 14 and had lied about his age to enlist.
Once this fact was discovered, Graham’s gunnery officer, Sargent Shriver was tasked with discharging him (as well as stripping him of all rank, medals and privilege).
Following this, Shriver was pulled off the USS South Dakota and trained as a submariner. Upon completion of his training, Shriver was assigned to the USS Sand Lance as its gunnery and torpedo officer, where he stayed for the remainder of the war.
Marriage to Eunice Kennedy
When the war ended in 1945, Sargent Shriver was among the 1.3 million men who were honorably discharged from the Navy, having achieved the rank of Lieutenant Commander.
Returning to New York, Shriver became an associate at New York-based law firm Winthrop Stimson before leaving to become an assistant editor at Newsweek.
Through his connections at Newsweek, Shriver first met Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., a millionaire businessman and patriarch of what was to become the Kennedy political family.
Impressed by the young man’s intellect, Kennedy offered Shriver a job at Joseph P. Kennedy Enterprise’s headquarters in New York, which Shriver accepted. One of Kennedy’s most trusted employees, Sargent Shriver was soon introduced to Kennedy’s daughter, Eunice, in 1946.
Immediately attracted to one another, the two began courting (dating), even staying together after Shriver moved to Chicago where he became assistant general manager of Joe Kennedy’s Merchandise Mart.
After a seven year-long courtship, Sargent Shriver married Eunice Kennedy on May 23 1953 at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, New York City. The ceremony was officiated by Cardinal Francis Spellman, a longtime friend and ally of the Kennedy family.
The couple had five children together:
- 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)
- Anthony Paul Kennedy Shriver (born July 20 1965).
By all accounts, the marriage was a happy one, with the couple often collaborating on projects and campaigns together, and remaining married until Eunice’s death in 2009.
Despite being a registered Democrat, and having married into a powerful Democratic family, when his Republican son-in-law Arnold Schwarzenegger ran for Governor of California in 2002, Shriver supported his son-in-law over his Democratic rival.
Political Career
Though a lawyer at heart, Sargent Shriver had married into the Kennedy family, so was destined to be involved in politics whether he liked it or not…
Early Days
Settling in Chicago not long after the wedding, Shriver initially continued to work at the Merchandise Mart, whilst he and his new wife worked on becoming pillars of the local community.
And their hard work paid off. A little less than a year after arriving in Chicago, in May 1954, the city’s Mayor, Martin H. Kennelly, appointed Shriver to the Chicago Board of Education.
In 1955, Shriver ran for, and was elected as the President of the Chicago Board of Education, where he’d serve for the next five years, only resigning due to other commitments.
Interestingly, Sargent Shriver was the second-youngest president in the board’s history, having been elected at the age of 39. This is a record that still stands today, well over 60 years later!
Whilst on the Chicago Board of Education, Shriver became a director of the Catholic Interracial Council, an organization whose sole purpose was to promote desegregation in Chicago, especially in schools.
Although desegregation wouldn’t officially happen for many more years, Shriver got the ball rolling, which ultimately led to the 1963 Chicago Public Schools boycott and the beginning of complete desegregation in the city.
1960’s
In 1960, Eunice’s older brother, John, announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for President. Thanks to his father’s money, and savvy political maneuvering on John’s part saw him win the Democratic nomination.
As with just about every other member of the Kennedy family, Sargent Shriver joined his brother-in-law’s campaign.
Given the task of being the campaign coordinator for the Wisconsin and West Virginia primaries, Shriver worked diligently to ensure John got enough good publicity in the states to win their electoral votes.
Sadly, Shriver would only be partly successful, winning West Virginia’s eight electoral votes but losing Wisconsin’s 12 electoral votes by only 65,000 votes!
Whilst on the campaign trail, Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested in Georgia for civil disobedience. Though Richard Nixon (Kennedy’s Republican counterpart) was sympathetic, and even tried to get King a presidential pardon, his campaign did nothing to help King.
Seeing it as not only a political stunt to gain the African-American vote, but also a personal responsibility, Sargent Shriver managed to convince JFK to contact King’s wife and father, as well as pull some strings to get him released.
King was released two days later, and King’s father openly endorsed Kennedy’s campaign, gaining Kennedy votes he desperately needed to win.
Years later, during the Johnson Administration, Shriver was tasked with spearheading Johnson’s “War on Poverty”. Although he initially rejected Johnson’s proposal, he soon took it in his stride and helped Johnson sell it to the American people.
In 1968, President Johnson appointed Sargent Shriver to be the US Ambassador to France, becoming a local celebrity in Paris. Serving until 1970, Shriver remained Ambassador under President Nixon, despite their differing politics.
Social Programs And Organizations
On the campaign trail, at Shriver’s instruction, JFK spoke about creating what he called the Peace Corps, something that was actually Shriver’s idea originally. When John was sworn in as President, once of his first moves was to sign Executive Order 10924.
With this executive order, JFK created the Peace Corps on March 1 1961, with his Sargent Shriver as the organization’s first director. Shriver served as the director for almost five years, resigning on February 28 1966.
As a part of his role as the “salesman” of Johnson’s “War on Poverty” Shriver created the Office of Equal Opportunity (OEO) and served as its first director from 1964 until 1968.
Wanting to increase the OEO’s jurisdiction as a part of Johnson’s Great Society legislative agenda, Shriver created the Head Start program in 1965, that aimed to help educate children from low-income families who were lagging behind in their studies.
The year previously, Shriver helped create the AmeriCorps VISTA program, as the domestic version of the Peace Corps.
Much like the Peace Corps did abroad, VISTA aimed to create job opportunities for unemployed people who genuinely believed they could contribute tangibly to the War on Poverty.
That same year, Sargent Shriver created the Job Corps to help provide vocational training to young people aged between 16 and 24, especially those who didn’t do that well in their school studies.
Interestingly, Shriver turned to history to help him with the Job Corps, modelling it on the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) of the Depression-era – something he, himself was intimately familiar with, having grown up at the height of the Depression!
Beyond founding these organizations, Sargent Shriver also helped to create organizations such as:
- Community Action
- Upward Bound
- Foster Grandparents
- Legal Services, the National Clearinghouse for Legal Services (known as the Shriver Center since 2002)
- Indian and Migrant Opportunities and Neighborhood Health Services
He did this all whilst heading the Peace Corps and the OEO, with the aforementioned organizations all being under the OEO’s jurisdiction.
Vice-President/Presidential Candidate
In 1972, the Democrats were engulfed in the Party’s Presidential primaries, trying to pick who the party would nominate as their candidate, and who they hoped would ultimately win the White House.
After months of campaigning, former US Representative and incumbent South Dakota senator, George McGovern, came out on top, winning the party’s nomination.
Wanting to tap into the public’s love for John F. Kennedy (whose popularity soared after his assassination), McGovern initially wanted Shriver to serve as his Vice-Presidential candidate.
His campaign reached out to Shriver, however, they heard nothing back from him as Shriver was touring Moscow with President Nixon as a part of the Détente. Instead, McGovern offered the VP spot to his second choice: Missouri Senator Thomas Eagleton.
However, when information surfaced that Eagleton had undergone electroshock therapy to treat depression on more than one occasion, Eagleton was dropped from the ticket and Shriver, who’d recently returned from Moscow, was asked once again.
This time, Shriver responded, accepting the nomination. Facing off against incumbent Republican President Richard Nixon, McGovern and Shriver put up a strong campaign, they lost in a landslide to Nixon. 520 electoral votes to 17!
Only winning DC and Massachusetts was an embarrassing loss for Shriver, who retired from politics as a result. Despite this, when the 1976 Democratic Primaries came around, Shriver ran for the party’s nomination, pledging a renewal of ethic in light of Watergate.
Although he was called the inheritor of Kennedy’s legacy, and used his role as the founder of organizations like the Peace Corps, for political use, his campaign received little support and he withdrew in March 1976 and retired from politics once again.
Retirement And Post-Politics Career
Though many thought the 61-year-old Sargent Shriver may one day return to political life in some capacity, he never did, instead dedicating himself to several private and business ventures.
Returning to the US in 1971, Shriver made the decision to at least get a taste of the law career he never got, getting a job as a partner at New York-based law firm Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, becoming a name partner.
As the firm’s rainmaker, Shriver specialized in international law and foreign affairs.
Making the firm millions of dollars over the next 15 years, Shriver retired in 1986 at the age of 71 and became the firm’s Special Counsel – maintaining a relationship with the firm despite not having any official title or role with them.
Having helped his wife found it in 1968 and being one of its first board members, Shriver was one of the Special Olympics’ staunchest supporter in Washington. Recognizing this, Shriver was elected President of the organization in 1984.
Under his leadership, the Special Olympics expanded enormously, even gaining recognition from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1988!
Six years after his election as president, in 1990, the organization’s board appointed him as the chairman of the board, a position he held until his death 21 years later when he was replaced by his son, Timothy.
On August 13 1988, then-owner of the Baltimore Orioles baseball team, Edward Bennett Williams, passed away. His estate no longer wanted to own the team and sought out a new owner.
Among those interested parties was a consortium of investors led by financier Eli Jacobs. Sargent Shriver, as well as his son, Bobby, were a part of this consortium. On December 5 1988, the consortium acquired the team for $70 million!
The consortium’s lawyer, Shriver dealt with the legal side of the deal and put up a token amount of money, whilst Eli Jacobs put up the majority of the money. The consortium owned the Orioles until 1993, when Eli Jacobs was forced to divest himself.
Illness & Death
Diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease in 2003, Shriver’s condition worsened quickly, so much so that he had delusions several times per day and could no longer recognize his wife of over 50 years, nor his children or grandchildren.
Indeed, it got so bad that his family stopped correcting his delusions, and so scary for his grandchildren that Maria Shriver wrote and published her 2004 children’s book What’s Happening to Grandpa? to explain Alzheimer’s to kids.
Despite his worsening mental condition, when Eunice Kennedy Shriver passed away on August 11 2009, Sargent Shriver attended her funeral at the Kennedy family compound at Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, on August 14 2009.
Likewise, when Eunice’s only surviving brother, Ted, passed away only two weeks after his sister, Sargent Shriver attended his brother-in-law’s funeral on August 29 2009 in Boston, Massachusetts.
Eventually, the disease progressed so far that Sargent Shriver had to be hospitalized at the Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, where he passed away on January 18 2011, at the age of 95.
Per his wishes, the Shriver family were to the first to announce his death, followed by the White House (specifically then President Barack Obama) and the Peace Corps.
Shriver also had obituaries published in his favorite newspapers, such as the New York Times, LA Times and The Guardian.
His funeral was held on January 22 2011 at Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church in Potomac, Maryland and was attended by celebrities like Senator John Kerry, Irish musician Glen Hansard and NBC News anchor Chris Matthews as well as members of both the Shriver and Kennedy families.
Legacy
As the man who founded several of the most important organizations of the 20th century, hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of people owe their very livelihoods to Sargent Shriver.
For his efforts, Shriver has received dozens of awards, honors and commendations for his efforts…
Most famously, the Sargent Shriver Elementary School in Silver Springs, Maryland (roughly 60 miles south of Shriver’s birthplace of Westminster, Maryland) was named in his honor for his contributions to education reform.
Similarly, The Kennedy Shriver Aquatic indoor swimming pool in north Bethesda, Maryland is named on honor of both Sargent Shriver, and his wife, Eunice, due to their heavy involvements with the Special Olympics.
Due to being closely associated with the Kennedy family’s rise to national prominence, Shriver has been portrayed by dozens of actors in dozens of films and TV shows documenting the Kennedy family.
In the 1983 miniseries, Kennedy, Shriver was portrayed by Al Conti, whilst in the 1988 film Too Young The Hero, Shriver is portrayed by Carl Mueller. Shriver also plays a minor role in the 2018 film Chappaquiddick, played by David De Beck.
Shriver has also been featured prominently in dozens of Kennedy-oriented documentaries, and was even the focus of a documentary titled American Idealist: The Story of Sargent Shriver, which aired on PBS in January 2008 and covered his rise to fame.
In December 1993, Shriver lent his name to the Shriver Center, the civic engagement and applied learning organization at the University of Maryland. In turn, the Shriver Center houses both the Shriver Peaceworker Program and the Shriver Living Learning Community.
Five years later, in 1998, Shriver’s Job Corps named a building after him – the Shriver Job Corps Center – based at Devens, Massachusetts.
Meanwhile, Shriver’s National Clearinghouse for Legal Services (known as the Shriver Center since 2002) awards the Sargent Shriver Award for Equal Justice each year.
Kennedy Family
Though he and (most of) his descendants don’t bear the Kennedy name, by virtue of his marriage to Eunice Kennedy (later Shriver), they are members of the Kennedy family.
Indeed, though many of them bear the Kennedy last name, they are still members of the Kennedy family, and remain incredibly close to their Kennedy relations.
Recent years have seen a few of Shriver’s children and grandchildren run for, and get elected to, political positions, often using their connections to the famed political dynasty to gain votes, or using their Kennedy connections to gain endorsements from members of the family.
Without Sargent Shriver, it is entirely possible that John F. Kennedy could’ve lost the election. The election was notoriously close between Kennedy and Nixon, and both desperately needed electoral votes.
Quite famously, had Kennedy lost Illinois to Nixon, he’d have lost the race all together. Although West Virginia’s eight electoral votes isn’t many, had Kennedy not won them, the race would’ve been even closer!
Eunice’s marriage to Shriver also strengthened the Kennedy family’s position with Catholics. Whilst the family gained much of the Catholic vote due to being Irish Catholics themselves, the Catholic votes the family received were mostly from Irish-Americans.
However, as an American Catholic of German and Scottish origin, Shriver’s endorsement of his brother-in-law likely gained him the votes of other groups of Catholics, namely Italian-Americans and German-Americans.
Do you remember Sargent Shriver? What did you think of him? Tell me in the comments!