Robert Sargent Shriver, brother-in-law to John F. Kennedy, has died at age 95.
“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,” the Shriver family said in a statement.
Shriver was George McGovern’s running mate in the 1972, founded the Peace Corps and served on a number of federal agencies in the 60s.
He was the father of Maria Shriver.
“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,” the family statement said. “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.”
Shriver suffered from Alzheimer’s disease for several years.
“Few Americans have touched as many lives as Sargent Shriver,” said Massachusetts Senator John Kerry in a statement. “As the first director of the Peace Corps, the head of the War on Poverty, and as president of the Special Olympics, he helped millions of Americans seize a sense of almost infinite possibilities and he brought the promise of America into countless corners around the globe. Sarge often said that ‘freedom is a crusade,’ and for him it was that and much more. He was an extraordinary man and an extraordinary public servant who never lost the idealism that grand achievements were a question of willpower, not capacity.”
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