Photos: Sargent Shriver and 50 Years of the Peace Corps

The Peace Corps: An Idea and a Promise
In 1961, John F. Kennedy sought to make good on a campaign promise to create the Peace Corps. The President tapped his brother-in-law R. Sargent Shriver to head the new agency. "But he told me," said Shriver, above in Salihl, Turkey, "that everyone in Washington seemed to think that the Peace Corps was going to be the biggest fiasco in history, and it would be much easier to fire a relative than a friend."

• Sargent Shriver, 1915-2011