POTOMAC, Md. — Sargent Shriver was always an optimist, pioneering the Peace Corps and running the War on Poverty during the turbulent 1960s — an idealist even as the running mate on a Democratic presidential ticket doomed for failure.
At his funeral Mass on Saturday, mourners from philanthropist and musician Bono to Vice President Joe Biden to former President Bill Clinton honored a man who dedicated his life to serving others. The celebration was filled with songs, laughter and fond memories.
“Fifty years ago, President Kennedy told us we should ask what we can do for our country,” Clinton said. “A whole generation of us understood what President Kennedy meant by looking at Sargent Shriver’s life.”
Shriver, who died Tuesday at age 95, grew up during the Great Depression, went to Yale on a scholarship and served in the Navy during World War II. Then, he fulfilled his brother-in-law John F. Kennedy’s campaign promise by developing the Peace Corps into a lasting international force.
“When he was starting the Peace Corps from scratch, many people thought he was naive and too idealistic, wanting to send a bunch of young Americans abroad” to some of the poorest countries of the world, said his son, Mark Shriver. “Daddy saw people helping people.”
Others were inspired to their own social activism.
“I was a student really of the Sarge way of doing things,” U2 frontman Bono said after singing at the service. Bono founded the Red Campaign with Shriver’s eldest son, Bobby, to fight AIDS in Africa.
“It’s a rare combination of grace and strategy,” Bono said of Sargent Shriver.
Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the archbishop of Washington, told Shriver’s 19 grandchildren to live with the same courage and conviction.
Shriver’s youngest son, Anthony Shriver, welcomed guests before the Mass began, cracking jokes and honoring his father for always making people feel valued. Anthony Shriver recalled one of his last conversations with his father. He said his father told him: “You tell Cardinal Wuerl to make Eunice a saint!” The crowd erupted in laughter.
Shriver’s late wife was Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver.
Tim Shriver — now chairman and CEO of the Special Olympics — said his father never coddled the children but “coached us to pursue those big, big ideas.”
Maria Shriver, wife of former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, said her family took comfort in “knowing that Daddy is in heaven with God and with Mummy.”
Shriver was former Sen. George McGovern’s running mate in the 1972 presidential election, but the Democrats lost in a landslide to President Richard M. Nixon.
In 1994, Shriver received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
Sargent Shriver had suffered from Alzheimer’s disease for the past eight years. His wife died in 2009 at age 88. He will be buried Saturday in Hyannis, Mass.
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