Former Peace Corps director and vice-presidential nominee R. Sargent Shriver was in critical condition this morning after being admitted yesterday to a Maryland hospital, a family spokeswoman said. No other details about the 95-year-old's ailment were released, but Shriver announced in 2003 that he had Alzheimer's disease.
He served as the first Peace Corps director in the administration of his brother-in-law, President John F. Kennedy. He also was Democrat George McGovern's running mate in 1972. Shriver's wife and Special Olympics Founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver died in 2009 at age 88. He is the father of former NBC reporter Maria Shriver, and father-in-law of Arnold Schwarzenegger. (More Arnold Schwarzenegger stories.)