Robert Francis Kennedy (November 20, 1925 – June 6, 1968)
Born in Brookline, Massachusetts, into the prestigious Kennedy family, Robert “Bobby” managed his older brother John’s presidential campaign. He was then appointed Attorney General in 1960. Here, he fought organized crime and was a key supporter of the civil rights movement. After his brother’s assassination, Bobby was elected to represent the state of New York in the Senate. Unfortunately, Bobby was to share the same fate as his brother.
For a time (after their father was the U.S. Ambassador to Britain) the Kennedy clan had to move to England. Back in the U.S. in 1939, under the threat of the second World War, Bobby graduated from Milton Academy prep school and went on to Harvard. After older brother Joseph was killed in the War, Bobby took a break from Harvard to enroll in the Navy. He returned to Harvard in 1946 to graduate in 1948 with a degree in government. For the next three years he pursued a law degree from the University of Virginia. During this time he met and married his sister’s roommate Ethel Skakel. In 1951 (the same year he graduated law school), he passed the Massachusetts bar exam.
Fresh out of school, he joined the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division. He resigned the next year so he could lead his brother John’s senatorial campaign. In 1960, he managed John’s presidential campaign. John was assassinated in 1963. In 1968, Bobby was nominated to run against Eugene McCarthy in the presidential election. On June 5, 1968 following a victory speech at the California Democratic Primary held at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, Bobby was shot several times by gunman Sirhan Sirhan. Bobby died the next day at the age of 42. He was survived by his wife and their 11 children. (The last child being born six months after his death.)