Maria Shriver’s Father Passes Away

Sargent Shriver Peace Corps Founder, Maria Shriver’s Father Passes Away

R. Sargent Shriver has died. Shriver was responsible for starting the U.S. Peace Corps and was passionate public servant was 95 years old.

He had suffered for years from Alzheimer’s disease. Shriver is the father of Maria Shriver and father-in-law to Arnold Schwarzenegger, as the governor of California.

According to CNN, the Shriver family released a statement saying Shriver died Tuesday “surrounded by his five children, five children in-law, and his 19 grandchildren.”

The family statement to the media went on to say that Shriver “lived to make the world a more joyful, faithful, and compassionate place. He worked on stages both large and small but in the end, he will be best known for his love of others. No one ever came into his presence without feeling his passion and his enthusiasm for them.”

In 1994, President Bill Clinton awarded R. Sargent Shriver the Presidential Medal of Freedom. President Ronald Reagan honored his wife, Eunice Shriver, with the same award in 1984. According to the New York Times, The Shrivers “were the only husband and wife to win the nation’s highest civilian honor individually.

In 2003, Shriver discovered he had Alzheimer’s disease but he attended the inauguration of his son-in-law, Arnold Schwarzenegger, as the Republican governor of California. But as his condition grew worse, he withdrew from the public eye.

President Obama said he was “deeply saddened” over the death of Shriver, and the President called Shriver “one of the brightest lights of the greatest generation.”