Kennedy, Joseph Patrick (1888-1969), was the head of a family that became prominent in American government and business. Kennedy was a self-made multimillionaire who earned most of his great wealth by investing in stocks, bonds, and real estate. He held several government positions, and his sons included a United States president and two senators.
His life.
Kennedy was born in Boston on Sept. 6, 1888. He graduated from Harvard University in 1912 and went to work as a bank examiner. At the age of 25, he gained control of a small bank in East Boston and became the country’s youngest bank president. He later managed a shipbuilding company and an investment banking firm. He also served as president and board chairman of several theater and motion-picture organizations.
In 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt named Kennedy to the newly created Securities and Exchange Commission, a government agency that regulates stock trading. He was elected its first chairman. He served as U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1937 to 1940. He died on Nov. 18, 1969.
His family.
In 1914, Kennedy married Rose Fitzgerald, daughter of the mayor of Boston. They had four sons and five daughters. The oldest child, Joseph, Jr., was killed in 1944, during World War II, on a mission as a U.S. Navy pilot. The other three Kennedy sons were John F. Kennedy, U.S. president from 1961 until his death in 1963; Robert F. Kennedy, who became U.S. attorney general in 1961 and a U.S. senator in 1965; and Edward M. (Ted) Kennedy, who became a U.S. senator in 1962.
The Kennedy daughters were Rosemary; Kathleen, the wife of the Marquess of Hartington; Eunice, the wife of Sargent Shriver, first director of the Peace Corps; Patricia, once married to actor Peter Lawford; and Jean, the wife of Stephen E. Smith, a shipping company executive. Eunice founded the Special Olympics, an athletic competition for mentally disabled children and adults.
Robert’s son Joseph P. Kennedy II represented Massachusetts in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1987 to 1999. Ted’s son Patrick represented Rhode Island in Congress from 1995 to 2011. Robert’s daughter Kathleen Kennedy Townsend served as lieutenant governor of Maryland from 1995 to 2003. John’s son, John, Jr., was cofounder and publisher of the political satire magazine George. He died in a plane crash in 1999. The magazine ceased publication in 2001. His sister, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, is an attorney and author. From 2002 to 2004, she served as chief fund-raiser for the New York City public schools.
