Shriver, Sargent, << SHRY vuhr, SAHR juhnt >> (1915-2011), was the Democratic nominee for vice president of the United States in 1972. Senator George S. McGovern of South Dakota and Shriver were defeated by President Richard M. Nixon and Vice President Spiro T. Agnew. In the 1960’s, Shriver served as the first director of the Peace Corps and of the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO).
Robert Sargent Shriver, Jr., was born on Nov. 9, 1915, in Westminster, Maryland. He graduated from Yale University in 1938 and from Yale Law School in 1941. He was a naval officer in World War II (1939-1945). In 1953, he married Eunice Kennedy, a sister of John F. Kennedy, who became president of the United States in 1961.
From 1961 to 1966, Shriver directed the Peace Corps under Presidents Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. In 1964, Shriver became director of the OEO. He was U.S. ambassador to France from 1968 to 1970. In 1972, Shriver replaced Senator Thomas F. Eagleton of Missouri as McGovern’s running mate. Eagleton had dropped out after revealing that he had been hospitalized three times for treatment of emotional exhaustion and depression. In 1976, Shriver campaigned for, but did not win, the Democratic presidential nomination. Sargent Shriver died on Jan. 18, 2011.
Shriver’s daughter, Maria, was the first lady of California from 2003 to 2011, when her husband, film actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, served as governor of the state. Maria Shriver and Schwarzenegger married in 1986 and divorced in 2021.
