Sargent Shriver, Founder of Peace Corps, Dead at 95

Sargent Shriver, a Kennedy in-law who was the first director of the Peace Corps, is dead at age 95, CNN reports. He had suffered from Alzheimer's for years and had been hospitalized for the last several days. Shriver entered political life through his 1953 marriage to Eunice Kennedy after having worked for Joseph Kennedy, the family patriarch. Shriver served as JFK's campaign manager in 1960, then spearheaded the launch of the Peace Corps.

JFK "told me that everyone in Washington seemed to think that the Peace Corps was going to be the biggest fiasco in history," Shriver once said, "and it would be much easier to fire a relative than a friend." After the Peace Corps, Shriver began a long record of service. He headed Lyndon Johnson's anti-poverty program, served as ambassador to France, and ran the Special Olympics. He also ran against Nixon as George McGovern's VP candidate in 1972. Click for more on his life.
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