Lifelong Democrat Devoted Irish Catholic Eunice Kennedy Shriver Charity work and awards See also: List of Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients In 2008, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development was renamed in honor of Eunice Kennedy Shriver. A longtime advocate for childrens health and disability issues, Shriver was a key founder of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), a part of the National Institutes of Health, in 1962, and has also helped to establish numerous other health-care facilities and support networks throughout the country. In 1982, Shriver founded the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Center for Community of Caring at University of Utah, Salt Lake City. The Community is a grades K-12, whole school, comprehensive character education program with a focus on disabilities... adopted by almost 1,200 schools nationwide and in Canada.[10] She was awarded the nations highest civilian award, the (U.S.) Presidential Medal of Freedom, in 1984 by U.S. President Ronald Reagan, because of her work on behalf of those with intellectual disability.[11] In 1990 Shriver was awarded the Eagle Award from the United States Sports Academy. The Eagle Award is the Academys highest international honor and was awarded to Shriver for her significant contributions to international sport.[12] In 1992, Shriver received the Award for Greatest Public Service Benefiting the Disadvantaged, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards.[13] For her work in nationalizing the Special Olympics, Shriver received the Civitan International World Citizenship Award.[14] Her advocacy on this issue has also earned her other awards and recognitions, including honorary degrees from numerous universities.[15][16] She is the second American and only woman to appear on a US coin while still living. Her portrait is on the obverse of the 1995 commemorative silver dollar honoring the Special Olympics. On the reverse is the quotation, As we hope for the best in them, hope is reborn in us. Shriver received the 2002 Theodore Roosevelt Award (the Teddy),[17] an annual award given by the National Collegiate Athletic Association to a graduate from an NCAA member institution who earned a varsity letter in college for participation in intercollegiate athletics, and who ultimately became a distinguished citizen of national reputation based on outstanding life accomplishment. In addition to the Teddy recognition, she was selected in 2006 as part of the NCAA Centennial celebration as one of the 100 most-influential individuals in its first century; she was listed ninth.[17] In 2006, she received a papal knighthood from Pope Benedict XVI, being made a Dame of the Order of St. Gregory the Great (DSG). Her mother had been created a papal countess in 1950 by Pope Pius XII.[citation needed] In 2008, the U.S. Congress changed the NICHD’s name to the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. In December 2008, Sports Illustrated named her the first recipient of Sportsman of the Year Legacy Award.[18] On May 9, 2009, the Smithsonian Institutions National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in Washington, D.C., unveiled an historic portrait of her, the first portrait the NPG has ever commissioned of an individual who had not served as a U.S. President or First Lady. The portrait depicts her with four Special Olympics athletes (including Loretta Claiborne) and one Best Buddies participant. It was painted by David Lenz, the winner of the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition in 2006. As part of the Portrait Competition prize, the NPG commissioned a work from the winning artist to depict a living subject for the collection. Lenz, whose son, Sam, has Down syndrome and is an enthusiastic Special Olympics athlete, was inspired by Shriver’s dedication to working with people with intellectual disabilities. Shriver became involved with Dorothy Hamills special skating program in the Special Olympics after Hamills Olympics Games ice-skating win. In September 2010, the State University of New York at Brockport, home of the 1979 Special Olympics, renamed its football stadium after Shriver.[19] Personal lifeEdit On May 23, 1953, she married Sargent Shriver in a Roman Catholic ceremony at Saint Patricks Cathedral in New York City.[20] Her husband served as the U.S. Ambassador to France from 1968 to 1970 and was the 1972 Democratic U.S. Vice Presidential candidate (with George McGovern as the candidate for U.S. President).[20] They had five children: Robert Sargent Shriver III (born April 28, 1954) Maria Owings Shriver (born November 6, 1955) Timothy Perry Shriver (born August 29, 1959) Mark Kennedy Shriver (born February 17, 1964) Anthony Paul Kennedy Shriver (born July 20, 1965) With her husband, she had nineteen grandchildren, the second-most of any of her siblings (her brother Robert had eleven children who have produced thirty-two grandchildren).[dated info] Her daughter Maria Shriver was married to actor and former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. As executive vice president of the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation in the 1950s, she shifted the organizations focus from Catholic charities to research on the causes intellectual disabilities and humane ways to treat them.[21] This interest eventually culminated in, among other things, the Special Olympics movement. Upon the death of her sister Rosemary Kennedy on January 7, 2005, Shriver became the eldest of the four then-surviving children of Joseph and Rose Kennedy. Her sister Patricia Kennedy Lawford died on September 17, 2006, and her brother Edward M. Kennedy died on August 25, 2009, leaving former U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Jean Kennedy Smith as the only surviving sibling.[22] Later years and deathEdit Shriver, who was believed to have suffered from Addisons disease,[23] suffered a stroke and a broken hip in 2005, and on November 18, 2007, she was admitted to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, where she spent several weeks.[24][25] On August 9, 2009, she was admitted to Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis, with an undisclosed ailment.[26] On August 10, her relatives were called to the hospital.[27] Early the following morning, Shriver died at the hospital; she was 88 years old.[2][28] No other Kennedy, with the exception of her mother, Rose, has, to date, lived longer. Shrivers family issued a statement upon her death, reading in part Inspired by her love of God, her devotion to her family, and her relentless belief in the dignity and worth of every human life, she worked without ceasing—searching, pushing, demanding, hoping for change. She was a living prayer, a living advocate, a living center of power. She set out to change the world and to change us, and she did that and more. She founded the movement that became Special Olympics, the largest movement for acceptance and inclusion for people with intellectual disabilities in the history of the world. Her work transformed the lives of hundreds of millions of people across the globe, and they in turn are her living legacy.[29] President Barack Obama remarked after Shrivers death that she was 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.[30]
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 09:44:33 +0000
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