On learning the news, President Barack Obama called him "one of the brightest lights of the greatest generation."
"Over the course of his long and distinguished career, Sarge came to embody the idea of public service," he said.
"Of his many enduring contributions, he will perhaps best be remembered as the founding director of the Peace Corps, helping make it possible for generations of Americans to serve as ambassadors of goodwill abroad."
He was a key player in the administration of his brother-in-law, president John F Kennedy, and a longtime activist in the Democratic Party.
The father of television journalist Maria Shriver and husband of the late Eunice Shriver, he was an early champion of the Peace Corps, which was established in 1961.
It quickly became the Kennedy administration`s idealistic face to the world, sending young Americans to work as volunteers in developing countries often riven by Cold War tensions.
More than 200,000 Americans have since served in 139 countries in a program that has survived generational and political changes.
Shriver went on to create a slew of other social programs that formed the heart of president Lyndon Johnson`s "war on poverty."
Among them were Vista, Head Start, Job Corps, Community Action, Foster Grandparents, Legal Services, Indian and Migrant Opportunities and Neighborhood Health Services.
At the time of his death, he was chairman of the board emeritus of the Special Olympics.
After Kennedy`s assassination in 1963, Shriver served as a special assistant to former president Johnson and as the first director of the White House Office of Economic Opportunity. He served as US Ambassador to France from 1968 to 70.
In 1972, George McGovern chose him to be his vice presidential running-mate after the abrupt resignation of Thomas Eagleton following disclosures that he had been treated for mental health problems.
McGovern was defeated in a landslide by Richard Nixon.
"He was a man of giant love, energy, enthusiasm, and commitment," his family said in announcing Shriver`s death.
"He lived to make the world a more joyful, faithful, and compassionate place. He centered everything on his faith and his family. He worked on stages both large and small but in the end, he will be best known for his love of others," they said.
A graduate of Yale University and Yale Law School, he opposed US
involvement in World War II, becoming a founding member of the isolationist America First movement.
But he joined the US Navy anyway, rising to the rank of lieutenant commander. He ultimately withdrew his opposition to the war.
After the war, he was hired by Joseph Kennedy, the clan`s patriarch, to manage his Chicago Merchandise Mart, and in 1953 married Eunice Kennedy at Saint Patrick`s Cathedral in New York. She died in 2009 at age 88.
He is survived by five children, five children in-law, and 19 grandchildren, the family said. (*)
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
