Anthony Lewis '48, a journalist who covered Kennedy and a classmate at Harvard, said that watching Kennedy's early career drastically changed his opinion of the man.

"[In college] I just thought of him as someone who was a football player, remote... He seemed like the demon investigator, not someone who cared for small people," Lewis says. "I was completely wrong. He was, underneath a hard shell he put on, an extremely tender person," Lewis adds, noting that his opinion changed as he watched Kennedy promote civil rights as attorney general.

Kennedy had been appointed to the post by John F. Kennedy '40 in 1960, and he left after his brother's assassination in 1963. Based largely on his success as attorney general, a year later he was elected a senator for the state of New York.

Kennedy's mission in politics was to help those who were less fortunate.

"He was able to focus the nations' attention on injustice--whether it involved the war in Vietnam or hungry children living in Mississippi," says Edward Kennedy. "He found such injustice unacceptable and inspired people to take action and do something about it."

Townsend tells of a trip her father made to Mississippi in his capacity as the chair of the hunger committee. There he saw a family whose house was the size of his family's dining room. According to Townsend, Kennedy returned home profoundly disturbed by the contrast.

"He was clearly moved, and he told us, 'Do you know how lucky you are. Do something for this country," Townsend says.

In 1968, Kennedy began a presidential campaign for the Democratic nomination. A late entry into the ring, Kennedy became an easy favorite.

But the campaign came to a sudden and tragicend on June 6, 1968, when Kennedy was giving avictory speech after winning the Californiaprimary. While speaking, he was shot and killed byJordanian nationalist Sirhan, a death perceived bymany as sad more for what had been undone, thanfor what had been cut short.

"Kennedy was always in a state of becoming.What makes his absence so tragic is that he wasonly forty-two years old when he was murdered, andhis becoming was far from completed," writesNewfield.

The Kennedys: From Grandeur to theGhetto

His assassination not only ended a promisingpolitical career, it meant the loss of a father to11 children.

Kennedy had married Ethel Skakel in 1950, andthey quickly began to perpetuate the Kennedy line,and by the time of Robert's death, the childrenranged in age from 16 years to six months old.

Of the 11, nine are still alive today. TheKennedy children have gone on to become lawyers,community activists, filmmakers and politicalfigures. Townsend is Maryland's lieutenantgovernor and Joseph P. Kennedy II, Robert's oldestson, is a Massachusetts member of the House ofRepresentatives.

Edward Kennedy believes that his brother wouldbe proud of many of his accomplishments, but thatfamily came first.

"I believe he would be the first to tell youthat his children were his proudestaccomplishment, along with marrying Ethel,"Kennedy says.