Kennedy in-law and Peace Corps director dies

R SARGENT SHRIVER, the exuberant public servant and Kennedy in-law who served as the first Peace Corps director, ambassador to France and a vice-presidential candidate, has died age 95.

Shriver, who had Alzheimer’s disease, was one of the last links to President John F Kennedy’s administration. He died after being in hospital for several days in his native Maryland.

A businessman and lawyer, he helped his wife and Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver run the organisation that allows mentally challenged children participate in sports.

For all his accomplishments, he became known first as a brother-in-law of President Kennedy and, late in life, father-in-law of actor turned California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. He went on a scholarship to Yale, then Yale Law School.

After serving in the navy in the Pacific during the Second World War, he returned and became an assistant editor at Newsweek magazine. About this time, he met Eunice Kennedy whom he married in New York in 1953.

Soon after taking office, President Kennedy named Shriver to fulfil a campaign promise to start the Peace Corps. Senator John Kerry said Shriver’s work led to almost quarter of a million volunteers helping 139 countries around the world over the past 50 years.