Eunice Kennedy Shriver

When Eunice Kennedy Shriver founded Special Olympics in 1968, she envisioned a program of athletic competition for people with mental retardation that sidelined prejudice and substituted opportunity and understanding. Through her advocacy, she has brought to millions of lives what all people deserve: A chance to experience self-worth, a chance to connect with their fellow man, a chance to live without walls.

"Special Olympics athletes are spokespersons for freedom itself - they ask for the freedom to live, the freedom to belong, the freedom to contribute, the freedom to have a chance. And, of all the values that unite and inspire us to seek a better world, no value holds a higher place than the value of freedom."

— Eunice Kennedy Shriver

Born: July 10, 1921 Brookline, Massachusetts

For nearly five decades Eunice Kennedy Shriver has devoted her life to leading the crusade to improve the lives of those with intellectual disabilities. The capstone of her many and varied accomplishments has been the founding, in 1968, and continuing operation of the Special Olympics. The Special Olympics helps those with intellectual disabilities grow intellectually and socially and has evolved into a worldwide effort to enhance the lives of these individuals and their families.

From relatively modest beginnings, the Special Olympics has grown to become the largest program in the world for sports training and competition for children and adults with intellectual disabilities. More than one million athletes in 150 countries now compete in 26 sports. More than 15,000 games, meets, and tournaments provide year-round opportunities for individuals with intellectual disabilities to develop physical fitness and experience the joy of participation.

Eunice Kennedy was the fifth of nine children of Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., a multi-millionaire financier, and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. She received her primary and secondary schooling at Roman Catholic convent schools. In England, during her father's tenure as ambassador, she graduated from a British boarding school. She attended Manhattanville College and transferred to Stanford University, graduating with a B.S. degree in Sociology in 1943.

As an employee in the Special War Problems Division of the U.S. Department of State, from 1943-1945 she helped former prisoners of war reorient to civilian life. In 1950, Shriver worked as a social worker at the Penitentiary for Women in Alderson, West Virginia. The following year she moved to Chicago where she continued her career as a social worker at a Chicago youth shelter and the Chicago Juvenile Court. In 1953, she married Sargent Shriver. She stopped working just before the birth of her first child in 1954. Four more children were to follow in the years to come.

Over the years Eunice Shriver has been an active and avid political campaign worker, beginning with her brother John Kennedy's various candidacies for elective office from 1946 through 1960. She also participated in the campaigns of brothers Bobby and Ted. In 1972, she stumped for her husband in his unsuccessful bid for the Vice Presidency on the McGovern ticket and as recently as 1994, she campaigned for her son's election to the Maryland House of Representatives.

In 1956, Shriver became Executive Vice President of the Joseph P. Kennedy Foundation and she embarked upon a lifelong journey that would have a positive impact on the lives of millions of children and adults with intellectual disabilities and their families. Established by her father, the Joseph P. Kennedy Foundation had served largely as a source of operating funds for Catholic organizations and institutions for those with intellectual disabilities including the St. Coletta School where her sister Rosemary Kennedy lived.

However, with Shriver's leadership and dedication, the Foundation changed its primary focus to research into the prevention of intellectual disabilities and to teach others to accept those with intellectual disabilities as contributing members of society. She persuaded President Kennedy, to establish a committee which made recommendations leading to the establishment of the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development. She was also instrumental in influencing the passage of key bills aimed at combating intellectual disabilities.

Shriver's determination to improve the lives of intellectually disabled children and adults was prompted by her personal experiences with the intellectual disability of her sister Rosemary. Shriver became aware that those with intellectual disabilities were the victims of widespread prejudice and that their abilities often went unrecognized. She learned about the deplorable conditions under which those with intellectual disabilities were living in some state institutions and the success experienced by those living in positive environments.

For several years, the Shrivers conducted a day camp for intellectually disabled children on a farm in Maryland. Eunice Shriver taught a gym class at the camp and came to realize that many of these children were very capable athletes. Through her efforts, the Joseph P. Kennedy Foundation established fitness standards and tests for people with intellectual disabilities and supported ongoing research to refine them.

Shriver's advocacy on behalf of the intellectually disabled has not been limited to the Special Olympics. She still heads the Joseph P. Kennedy Foundation and continues to direct programs to award millions of dollars in grants for mental illness research and scholarships for bioethics. She was a driving force in the creation of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown and a similar entity at Harvard.

Shriver also established the Community of Caring program in 1981. Designed to help prevent teen pregnancy, which can lead to intellectual disabilities of a newborn, this school-based program involves professionally led discussions of values, student forums, parent involvement, and community service. The program has expanded to also include a focus on drug and alcohol abuse as well as reducing the drop-out rate. The program is currently in place in over 200 elementary, middle, and high schools in 20 states and the District of Columbia.

Shriver has been awarded the National Volunteer Service Award, the AAMD Humanitarian Award, the AFL-CIO's Phillip Murray-William Green Award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the distinction of being the only living woman to be commemorated on a U.S. coin. In 1969, the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center was named in her honor. Its purpose is to promote understanding of neurological and behavioral development with special emphasis on the challenges of intellectual disability and other developmental disorders.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver's efforts on behalf of those with intellectual disabilities were a precursor to the larger disabilities movement. History will likely judge her as one of the most influential advocates for the cultural inclusion and support of those with intellectual disabilities.


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