Founder and Honorary Chairman, Special Olympics
Executive Vice President, Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation

Eunice Kennedy Shriver has been a leader in the worldwide struggle to improve and enhance the lives of individuals with intellectual disabilities for more than three decades.

Born in Brookline, Massachusetts, USA, the fifth of nine children of Joseph P. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, Eunice Mary Kennedy received a Bachelor of Science degree in sociology from Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, USA.

Following graduation, she worked for the State Department in the Special War Problems Division. In 1950, she became a social worker at the Penitentiary for Women in Alderson, West Virginia, and the following year she moved to Chicago, Illinois, to work with the House of the Good Shepherd and the Chicago Juvenile Court. In 1957, Shriver took over the direction of the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation.

The Foundation, established in 1946 as a memorial to Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. — Joseph and Rose Kennedy's eldest son, who was killed in World War II — has two major objectives: to seek the prevention of mental retardation by identifying its causes, and to improve the means by which society deals with citizens who have mental retardation. Under Shriver's leadership, the Foundation has helped achieve many significant advances.

In June 1963, Shriver started a summer day camp for children and adults with intellectual disabilities at her home in Maryland to explore their capabilities in a variety of sports and physical activities. From that camp came the concept of Special Olympics, a movement dedicated to empowering people with intellectual disabilities to realize their full potential and develop their skills through year-round sports training and competition.

In July 20, 1968, together with the Chicago (Illinois, USA) Park District, the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation planed and underwrote the First International Special Olympics Summer Games, held in Chicago's Soldier Field, with 1,000 athletes with intellectual disabilities from 26 U.S. states and Canada competing in athletics, floor hockey and aquatics.

In December 1968, Special Olympics, Inc., was established as a not-for-profit charitable organization under the laws of the District of Columbia. The National Association for Retarded Citizens, the Council for Exceptional Children and the American Association on Mental Deficiency pledged their support for this first systematic effort to provide sports training and athletic competition for individuals with intellectual disabilities based on the Olympic tradition and spirit.

Today, more than 1.3 million children and adults with intellectual disabilities participate in Special Olympics. The movement is active in more than 150 countries around the world.

Shriver remains a member of the Special Olympics Board of Directors and continues to lend her well-earned reputation as a visionary leader in improving the lives of people with intellectual disabilities to furthering the mission and expansion of the Movement. She is no longer involved in day-to-day management of Special Olympics.

Recognized throughout the world for her efforts on behalf of persons with intellectual disabilities, Shriver has received many honors and awards, including: the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Legion of Honor, the Priz de la Couronne Francaise, the Mary Lasker Award, the Philip Murray-William Green Award (presented to Eunice and Sargent Shriver by the AFL-CIO), the AAMD Humanitarian Award, the NRPAS National Volunteer Service Award, the Laetare Medal of the University of Notre Dame and the Order of the Smile of Polish Children.

Most recently, Shriver received the 2002 Theodore Roosevelt Award — the highest honor the National Collegiate Athletic Association bestows on an individual.

Her honorary degrees include: Yale University, the College of the Holy Cross, Princeton University, Regis College, Manhattanville College, Newton College, Brescia College, Central Michigan University, University of Vermont, Albertus Magnus College and Cardinal Strich University.

On March 24, 1984, when President Reagan awarded Shriver the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award, for work on behalf of persons with intellectual disabilities, he had this to say:

"With enormous conviction and unrelenting effort, Eunice Kennedy Shriver has labored on behalf of America's least powerful people, those with mental retardation. Over the last two decades, she has been at the forefront of numerous initiatives on behalf of the mentally retarded, from creating day camps, to establishing research centers, to the founding of the Special Olympics program. Her decency and goodness have touched the lives of many, and Eunice Kennedy Shriver deserves America's praise, gratitude and love."

Eunice Kennedy Shriver is married to Sargent Shriver, Chairman of the Board Emeritus of Special Olympics; former Director of the Peace Corps and the Office of Economic Opportunity; and former U.S. ambassador to France. The Shrivers have five children: Robert Sargent Shriver III, Maria Owings Shriver Schwarzenegger, Timothy Perry Shriver, Mark Kennedy Shriver, and Anthony Paul Kennedy Shriver.