Peace Corps' Founding Father

Although from the outside it might seem like John F. Kennedy was the one man who made Peace Corps a reality, from the inside many people (including 200,000+ Returned Peace Corps Volunteers) attribute much of Peace Corps' success and longevity as an organization to our founding director, Sargent Shriver. He was a dedicated peacebuilder, activist and in many ways a renaissance man. He slept on airplanes (on the floor under his seat and the seat in front of him), felt at home as he traveled to the most remote corners of the world, and connected with millions of people during the 95 years of his exceptional life. In addition to his work with Peace Corps, he also founded VISTA, Job Corps, Head Start, and helped start the Special Olympics with his wife Eunice Kennedy Shriver.

"Sarge", as he is known by those close to him, is having a lot of wonderful things written about him this week after he passed away this Wednesday. I have read dozens of the articles and these are a few of my favorites:

• Sarge on Napping in the New Yorker
• News Release in the New York Times
  
• Bono in the New York Times 
• Colman McCarthy in the Washington Post 
• Erica Burman with the National Peace Corps Association,
• Peter Hessler in the New Yorker
• John Coyne in the Daily Beast

I'm sure there will continue to be great memories of Sarge written for some time to come. In fact, if you would like to share your own stories and send your thoughts to the Shriver Family, you can visit SargentShriver.org anytime.

Also to learn more about Sargent Shriver visit Shriver.PeaceCorps.gov, SargentShriver.org, Wikipedia.org, and check out the documentary American Idealist. This week, I will share some of my favorite quotes from Sargent Shriver online as people around the world remember him and continue to be inspired by his incredible example. Thank you, Sarge, for your incredible life of inspired service.

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