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Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient
Eunice Kennedy Shriver
EUNICE KENNEDY SHRIVER
Awarded by
President Ronald Reagan
March 26, 1984
With enormous conviction and unrelenting effort, Eunice Kennedy Shriver has labored on behalf of America's least powerful people, the mentally retarded. Over the last two decades, she has been on the forefront of numerous initiatives on behalf of the mentally retarded, from creating day camps, to establishing research centers, to the founding of the Special Olympics. Her decency and goodness have touched the lives of many, and Eunice Kennedy Shriver deserves America's praise, gratitude, and love.
Eunice Kennedy Shriver
Executive Vice President, Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation
Founder and Honorary Chairman, Special Olympics, Inc.
As Executive Vice President of the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation and Honorary Chairman of Special Olympics, Inc., Eunice Kennedy Shriver has been a leader in the worldwide struggle to improve and enhance the lives of individuals with mental retardation for more than three decades.
Born in Brookline, Massachusetts, the fifth of nine children of Joseph P. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, Eunice Mary Kennedy received a Bachelor of Science degree in sociology from Stanford University, Palo Alto, California.
Following graduation, she worked for the State Department in the Special War Problems Division. In 1950, she became a social worker at the Penitentiary for Women in Alderson, West Virginia, and the following year she moved to Chicago to work with the House of the Good Shepherd and the Chicago Juvenile Court. In 1957, Mrs. Shriver took over the direction of the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation.
The Foundation, established in 1946 as a memorial to Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. the eldest son, who was killed in World War II has two major objectives: to seek the prevention of mental retardation by identifying its causes, and to improve the means by which society deals with citizens who have mental retardation.
Under Mrs. Shriver's leadership, the Foundation has helped achieve many significant advances, including the following:
1961 The establishment of the President Kennedy Committee on Mental Retardation
1962 Development of the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development
1962 Creation of the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Awards in Mental Retardation
1963 Establishment of fitness standards and tests for individuals with mental retardation, similar to the President's Fitness Awards program, and research to develop these fitness standards for people with mental retardation
- The initiation of a five-year public information campaign by the National Advertising Council to promote acceptance and understanding of people with mental retardation
1964 Changes in Civil Service regulations that allow persons with mental retardation to be hired on the basis of ability rather than test scores
- The establishment of a network of university-affiliated facilities and mental retardation research centers at major medical schools across the United States
1968 The establishment of Special Olympics
- The creation of major centers for the study of medical ethics at Harvard and Georgetown Universities
- The creation of the "Community of Caring" concept for the reduction of mental retardation among babies of teenagers
1982 Institution of 16 "Community of Caring" Model Centers
1984 Receives Presidential Medal of Freedom
1993 Receives Freedom From Want Medal from The Roosevelt Institute
1995 Becomes the first living American woman to be portrayed on United States legal tender: the 1995 Special Olympics World Summer Games silver commemorative coin
1990- Establishment of Community of Caring programs in 450 public and private
1997 schools
- Inducted into National Womens Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York
- Recipient of 1998 Aetna Voice of Conscience® Award and the Juanita Kreps Award
- Recognized at the inaugural Laureus Sports Awards with the Sport for Good Award.
Recognized throughout the world for her efforts on behalf of persons with mental retardation, Mrs. Shriver has received many honors and awards including: the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Legion of Honor, the Priz de la Couronne Francaise, the Mary Lasker Award, the Philip Murray-William Green Award (presented to Eunice and Sargent Shriver by the AFL-CIO), the AAMD Humanitarian Award, the NRPAS National Volunteer Service Award, the Laetare Medal of the University of Notre Dame, and the Order of the Smile of Polish Children.
Her honorary degrees include: Yale University, Holy Cross University, Princeton University, Regis College, Manhattanville College, Newton College, Brescia College, Central Michigan University, University of Vermont, and Albertus Magnus College.
On March 24, 1984, when President Reagan awarded Mrs. Shriver the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award, for work on behalf of persons with mental retardation, he had this to say:
With enormous conviction and unrelenting effort, Eunice Kennedy Shriver has labored on behalf of Americas least powerful people, those with mental retardation. Over the last two decades, she has been at the forefront of numerous initiatives on behalf of the mentally retarded, from creating day camps, to establishing research centers, to the founding of the Special Olympics program. Her decency and goodness have touched the lives of many, and Eunice Kennedy Shriver deserves America's praise, gratitude and love."
Eunice Kennedy Shriver is married to Sargent Shriver, Chairman of the Board of Special Olympics, Inc. and former Director of the Peace Corps and the Office of Economic Opportunity, and former U.S. ambassador to France. The Shrivers have five children: Robert Sargent Shriver III, Maria Owings Shriver Schwarzenegger, Timothy Perry Shriver, Mark Kennedy Shriver, and Anthony Paul Kennedy Shriver.
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Medal History
