The Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation is a non-profit foundation founded in memory of Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy killed in action during World War II, who was the elder brother of President John F. Kennedy. The foundation was set up in 1946 by his father, Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., the patriarch of the Kennedy family. The foundation was led by Kennedy Jr's youngest brother, U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy, until he died in 2009.
The foundation funded the construction of the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Memorial Hall at Boston College, now a part of Campion Hall and home to the college's Lynch School of Education. In 1957, the Lieutenant Joseph Patrick Kennedy Junior Memorial Skating Rink was opened in Hyannis, Massachusetts, with funds from the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation. [1] In 2000, the foundation had assets of $30 million. [2]
The Kennedy family is an American political family that has long been prominent in American politics, public service, entertainment, and business. In 1884, 35 years after the family's arrival from County Wexford, Ireland, Patrick Joseph "P. J." Kennedy became the first Kennedy elected to public office, serving in the Massachusetts state legislature until 1895. At least one Kennedy family member served in federal elective office from 1947, when P. J. Kennedy's grandson John F. Kennedy became a member of Congress from Massachusetts, until 2011, when Patrick J. Kennedy II retired as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Rhode Island.
Eunice Mary Kennedy Shriver was an American philanthropist. Shriver was a member of the Kennedy family by birth, and a member of the Shriver family through her marriage to Sargent Shriver, who was the United States Ambassador to France and the final Democratic nominee for Vice President of the United States in 1972. She was a sister of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, U.S. Senators Robert F. Kennedy and Edward Kennedy, and U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Jean Kennedy Smith.
Felix Weihs de Weldon was an Austrian sculptor. His most famous pieces include the United States Marine Corps War Memorial in the Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia, US, and the Malaysian National Monument (1966) in Kuala Lumpur.
Caroline Bouvier Kennedy is an American author, diplomat and attorney who had served as the United States ambassador to Australia from 2022 to 2024. Kennedy previously served in the Obama administration as the United States ambassador to Japan from 2013 to 2017. Most of Kennedy's professional life has been in literature, law, politics, education reform, and charity. She is a member of the Kennedy family and the only surviving child of US president John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy.
Ethel Kennedy was an American human rights advocate. She was the wife of U.S. senator Robert F. Kennedy, a sister-in-law of U.S. president John F. Kennedy, and a daughter of businessman George Skakel.
Kathleen Hartington Kennedy Townsend is an American attorney who was the sixth lieutenant governor of Maryland from 1995 to 2003. She ran unsuccessfully for governor of Maryland in 2002.
Joseph Patrick Kennedy II is an American businessman, Democratic politician, and a member of the Kennedy family. He is a son of former United States Senator Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Kennedy, and he is a nephew of former U.S. President John F. Kennedy and former U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy.
USS Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. (DD-850) is a former United States Navy Gearing-class destroyer. The ship was named after Lieutenant Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., a naval aviator, son of the former U.S. Ambassador to Britain, Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., and older brother of future President John F. Kennedy. Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. served, with interruptions for modernization, until 1973. Among the highlights of her service are the blockade of Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis and the afloat recovery teams for Gemini 6 and Gemini 7. Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. is on display as a museum ship in Battleship Cove, Fall River, Massachusetts. She was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976, and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989 as one of a small number of surviving Gearing-class destroyers.
Kathleen Agnes Cavendish, Marchioness of Hartington, also known as "Kick" Kennedy, was an American socialite. She was the second daughter of Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and Rose Fitzgerald, a sister of U.S. President John F. Kennedy and Senators Robert F. Kennedy and Ted Kennedy, and the wife of the Marquess of Hartington, heir apparent to the 10th Duke of Devonshire.
Stephen Edward Smith was the husband of Jean Ann Kennedy. He was a financial analyst and political strategist in the 1960 United States presidential campaign of his brother-in-law John F. Kennedy.
Joseph Patrick Kennedy Jr. was an American naval aviator who was a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy. He was a member of the Kennedy family and the eldest of the nine children born to Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. During World War II, Kennedy was killed in action while serving as a land-based patrol bomber pilot, and posthumously awarded the Navy Cross.
Kennedy, with variant forms O'Kennedy and Kennedie, is a surname of Irish origin that has also been used as a given name.
Robert Francis Kennedy, also known as RFK, was an American politician and lawyer. He served as the 64th United States attorney general from January 1961 to September 1964, and as a U.S. senator from New York from January 1965 until his assassination in June 1968, when he was running for the Democratic presidential nomination. Like his brothers John F. Kennedy and Ted Kennedy, he was a prominent member of the Democratic Party and is considered an icon of modern American liberalism.
The Lieutenant Joseph Patrick Kennedy Junior Memorial Skating Rink was an ice skating rink in the town of Barnstable, Massachusetts, United States. It was named after the late Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., who was killed when his B-24 Liberator exploded during a bombing mission. The facility also doubled as an ice hockey rink for Barnstable High School. The last public skate occurred on March 22, 2009. It was replaced by the Hyannis Youth and Community Center.
Matthew Maxwell Taylor Kennedy is an American lawyer and author. He is the ninth child of Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Skakel Kennedy.
A Massachusetts general election was held on November 8, 1960, in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Joseph Patrick Kennedy III is an American politician and diplomat who most recently served as the United States Special Envoy for Northern Ireland from 2022 to 2024. Prior to this, Kennedy served as the U.S. representative for Massachusetts's 4th congressional district from 2013 to 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented a district that extends from Boston's western suburbs to the state's South Coast. He worked as an assistant district attorney in the Cape and Islands and Middlesex County, Massachusetts, offices before his election to Congress. In January 2021, he became a CNN commentator.
Jean Ann Kennedy Smith was an American diplomat, activist, humanitarian, and author who served as United States Ambassador to Ireland from 1993 to 1998. She was a member of the Kennedy family, the eighth of nine children, and youngest daughter, born to Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and Rose Kennedy. Her siblings included President of the United States John F. Kennedy, United States Senate member Robert F. Kennedy from New York, United States Senate member Ted Kennedy from Massachusetts, Rosemary Kennedy, and Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver. She was also a sister-in-law of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.