Photos: Sargent Shriver and 50 Years of the Peace Corps

Up in the Air
Shriver accepted the job of Peace Corps director but was by no means swept up in the idealism of it. "There's a great difference between a noble idea, no matter how well conceived, and the execution of that idea in practical, realistic, down-to-earth terms," Shriver said. "I had misgivings. I lay awake at night." In this photo, the director works on a speech while aboard a plane flying over Pakistan.

• Sargent Shriver, 1915-2011