Eunice Kennedy Shriver
Founder of Special Olympics
Nurturing Network Founding Director

“Mary is a woman for her culture and her time—a woman of energy and empathy.  As wife, mother, best selling author and international speaker, she champions the truth of the dignity of the unborn child and the sanctity of life with delicacy and grace.”

Born: July 10, 1921 Brookline, Massachusetts

For nearly five decades Eunice Kennedy Shriver devoted her life to leading the crusade to improve the lives of those who are most vulnerable in our world.  She served clients of the Nurturing Network generously and with profound commitment as a founding TNN Board Member.

The capstone of her many and varied accomplishments was the founding, in 1968, and subsequent leadership of the Special Olympics. The Special Olympics helps those with mental disabilities grow intellectually and socially.  It has evolved into a worldwide effort to enhance the lives of these individuals and their families.

Eunice Kennedy was the fifth of nine children of Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., 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.

Over the years, Eunice Shriver was 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.  As recently as 1994, she campaigned for her son's election to the Maryland House of Representatives.

Eunice's advocacy on behalf of the mentally retarded was not limited to the Special Olympics. She headed the Joseph P. Kennedy Foundation and directed 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.

Eunice also established the Community of Caring program in 1981. Designed to help prevent teen pregnancy, which can lead to mental retardation 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.

Eunice was awarded the National Volunteer Service Award, the AAMD Humanitarian Award, the AFL-CIO's Phillip Murray-William Green Award and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.  She received 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 mental retardation and other developmental disorders.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver's efforts on behalf of those with special challenges 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 mental disabilities.