Tribute to Eunice Kennedy Shriver

August 11, 2009

Pictured at the opening of the Shriver Center in 1970 (from left to right): Co-Founder, Dr. Raymond Adams, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, and Dr. Malcolm J. Farrell of the Fernald School. (c) 2009 Globe Newspaper Company. Republished with permission.

The Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center of the University of Massachusetts Medical School mourns the loss of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who will forever be remembered as a foremost pioneer and champion for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. We share in the Shriver and Kennedy families’ sorrow and wish to honor Eunice Kennedy Shriver’s legacy at this sad time.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver was an historic figure in the national effort to improve the opportunities and quality of life for people with mental retardation/intellectual disability and their families. Decades ago, her efforts were instrumental in establishing the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (now named in her honor as the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development).

She also helped establish the national network of University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, the President's Committee on Mental Retardation, and the Joseph P. Kennedy Foundation. She is perhaps best known as the principal founder of the Special Olympics and through her support and tireless energy helped develop it into a worldwide organization of 2.5 million athletes from 180 countries.

In recognition of her work on behalf of people with intellectual disabilities, she was awarded the presidential Medal of Freedom in 1984. The center that bears her name in Massachusetts, the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center, is a Center of Excellence at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, a center committed to the many agendas that Mrs. Shriver embraced throughout her life.

Mrs. Shriver’s vision of dignity and fulfillment for people with intellectual disabilities has informed our field for more than 50 years, and her profound and enduring contributions have changed for the better the manner in which people with intellectual disabilities are perceived, treated, supported and involved in community life.

The Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center was founded in 1970 on the grounds of what is now the Massachusetts Department of Developmental Services’ Fernald School campus in Waltham. It is named in honor of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, “for her life-long commitment to improving the welfare of persons with mental retardation.”

We know that Eunice Kennedy Shriver’s good works will live on through the many efforts she inspired on behalf of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families.

William McIlvane, PhD, Executive Director

Charles D. Hamad, PhD, Director

Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center

Waltham, Mass