August 20, 2009 | Read Time: 1 minute
Age at death: 88
Major philanthropic role: Eunice Kennedy Shriver sought to fight the stigma surrounding mental retardation by creating Special Olympics in 1961. Started as a summer camp at her suburban Maryland home, the charity — which helps people with disabilities realize their potential through athletic competition — grew steadily and now operates on a budget that nears $250-million.
Other philanthropy ties: Mrs. Shriver ran the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation, established in 1946 in honor of her oldest brother, who was killed in World War II. She steered many of its grants to organizations that seek to combat and understand mental disabilities, including a network of research centers that the foundation helped found at major universities such as Harvard, Stanford, and Johns Hopkins.
How she spent her early years: The fifth child of nine in a political family that continues to shape American politics, Mrs. Shriver graduated from Stanford in 1943. Before her marriage a decade later to Sargent Shriver, who was the first director of the Peace Corps, she worked as a social worker at a West Virginia prison and in another position helping former U.S. prisoners of war re-enter American life.
How she will be remembered: A 1993 article in U.S. News & World Report speculated that Mrs. Shriver’s accomplishments might one day prove more consequential than any of the achievements of her brothers John, Edward, and Robert. President Obama said she will be remembered “as an extraordinary woman who, as much as anyone, taught our nation — and our world — that no physical or mental barrier can restrain the power of the human spirit.”
