Photos: Sargent Shriver and 50 Years of the Peace Corps

Demand
Shriver tours the streets of a refugee camp in Jericho, then in Jordan, with a group of excited children. Kennedy created the Peace Corps with an Executive Order in March 1961, put it under the wing of the State Department, and sent Shriver off on a monthlong, eight-nation tour to see if anyone was interested in inviting some rosy American idealists. Shriver returned with a hat full of requests: India especially wanted agricultural workers; Ghana needed plumbers, teachers and electricians; the Philippines wanted English teachers.

• Sargent Shriver, 1915-2011