- published: 20 Jun 2012
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Anthony Paul Kennedy Shriver (born July 20, 1965, in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American activist for people with intellectual disabilities. In 1989, he founded Best Buddies International, an international organization that helps people with intellectual disabilities to find employment and social opportunities.
Shriver is the youngest of five children born to Eunice Kennedy Shriver (neé Kennedy), who founded the Special Olympics in 1968, and Sargent Shriver, a Democratic politician and activist.
He graduated from the Georgetown Preparatory School, North Bethesda, Maryland; he then attended Brown University before transferring to Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., from which he graduated in 1988 with a double major in theology and history.
Shriver is the Founder and Chairman of Best Buddies International a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization which he created in 1989 dedicated to establishing a global volunteer movement that creates opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment and leadership development for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Recognizing the tremendous volunteer potential of university students, Anthony first inspired his college peers to personally collaborate in expanding the realm of opportunities that persons with intellectual disabilities should experience. He began his group at the Kennedy Institute in Washington, DC, a school for children with disabilities, founded by the Kennedy Family. Shriver spoke in 2008 about the all-inclusive nature of the program:
Anthony McLeod Kennedy (born July 23, 1936) is an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, having been appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1988. Since the retirement of Sandra Day O'Connor, Kennedy has often been the "swing vote" on many of the Court's 5–4 decisions.
Kennedy was born and raised in Sacramento, California, the son of Anthony J. Kennedy, an attorney with a reputation for influence in the California legislature, and Gladys (née McLeod), who participated in many local civic activities. As a boy, Kennedy came into contact with prominent politicians of the day, such as California Governor and later U.S. Chief Justice Earl Warren. He served as a page in the California State Senate as a young man. He is not a member of the Kennedy political family.
Kennedy graduated from C. K. McClatchy High School in 1954. He was an undergraduate student at Stanford University from 1954–58, graduating with a B.A. in Political Science, after spending his senior year at the London School of Economics. He earned an LL.B from Harvard Law School, graduating cum laude in 1961.