Robert kennedy childhood biography sample

American politician and lawyer (1925–1968)

"RFK", "Robert Kennedy", and "Bobby Kennedy" redirect here. For other uses, see RFK (disambiguation) and Robert Kennedy (disambiguation).

Robert Francis Kennedy (November 20, 1925 – June 6, 1968), 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.

Born into the prominent Kennedy family in Brookline, Massachusetts, Kennedy attended Harvard University, and later received his law degree from the University of Virginia. He began his career as a correspondent for The Boston Post

American politician and activist (born 1954)

Robert Francis Kennedy Jr. (born January 17, 1954), also known by his initials RFK Jr., is an American politician, environmental lawyer, author, anti-vaccine activist, and conspiracy theorist who has served as the 26th United States secretary of health and human services since February 13, 2025. A member of the Kennedy family, he is a son of Senator Robert F. Kennedy and a nephew of President John F. Kennedy.

Kennedy grew up in the Washington, D.C. area and Massachusetts, and graduated from Harvard University and the University of Virginia School of Law. He began his career as an assistant district attorney in Manhattan. In the mid-1980s, he joined two nonprofits focused on environmental protection: Riverkeeper and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). He became an adjunct professor of environmental law at Pace University School of Law in 1986. In 1987, Kennedy founded Pace's Environmental Litigation Clinic. He founded the nonprofit environmental group Waterkeeper Alliance in 1999. He first ran as a Democrat and later started an independent campaign in the 2024 United States presidential election, before withdrawing from the race and endorsing Republican candidate Donald Trump.

Since 2005, Kennedy has promoted vaccine misinformation and public-health conspiracy theories, including the scientifically disproved claim of a causal link between vaccines and autism. He is the founder and former chairman of Children's Health Defense, an anti-vaccine advocacy group and proponent of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation. Kennedy has written books including The Riverkeepers (1997), Crimes Against Nature (2004), The Real Anthony Fauci (2021), and A Letter to Liberals (2022).

Early life and education

Kennedy was born at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C., on January 17, 1954. He is the third of eleven chil

Robert Francis Kennedy, also widely known under the initials of RFK, was a lawyer and politician, one of the nine children born into the family or Joseph and Rose Kennedy. He was the Attorney General in the administration of his brother, President John F. Kennedy. After the unfortunate assassination of his brother, Robert was elected the state of New York representative to the United States Senate. Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in the course of his run for the presidency on June the 5th, 1968 (Biography par. 2).

Brief Biography

Robert F. Kennedy was born on November 20th, 1925. He studied at the Milton Academy, and after his Navy service during World War II, graduated Harvard University with a degree in government. Three years later, he had received the degree in law at the University of Virginia Law School. According to Robert himself, the most cherished education he received was from his parents and their family dinners, where Joseph and Rose Kennedy engaged their children in deep conversations about current news, politics, and history (John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum par. 2).

RFK married Ethel Skakel in 1950; his wife was a daughter of George Skakel, who founded the Great Lakes Carbon Corporation. During their marriage, Robert and Ethel had eleven children. The political career of RFK had started in 1952 when he became his older brother John Kennedy’s manager during his campaign to become a representative for the State of Massachusetts in the United States Senate. When in 1960 John F. Kennedy decided to run for the presidency, Robert was by his side as a manager. Furthermore, after JFK’s election, Robert was appointed the Attorney General in the president’s office. During his course of serving as Attorney General, Robert F. Kennedy was greatly praised for his Department of Justi

Robert Francis Kennedy was born on November 20, 1925, in Brookline, Massachusetts, the seventh child in the closely knit and competitive family of Rose and Joseph P. Kennedy. "I was the seventh of nine children," he later recalled, "and when you come from that far down you have to struggle to survive."

He attended Milton Academy and, after wartime service in the Navy, received his degree in government from Harvard University in 1948. He earned his law degree from the University of Virginia Law School three years later. Perhaps more important for his education was the Kennedy family dinner table, where his parents involved their children in discussions of history and current affairs. "I can hardly remember a mealtime," Robert Kennedy said, "when the conversation was not dominated by what Franklin D. Roosevelt was doing or what was happening in the world."

In 1950, Robert Kennedy married Ethel Skakel of Greenwich, Connecticut, daughter of Ann Brannack Skakel and George Skakel, founder of Great Lakes Carbon Corporation. Robert and Ethel Kennedy later had eleven children. In 1952, he made his political debut as manager of his older brother John's successful campaign for the US Senate from Massachusetts.

The following year, he served briefly on the staff of the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations, chaired by Senator Joseph McCarthy. Disturbed by McCarthy's controversial tactics, Kennedy resigned from the staff after six months. He later returned to the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations as chief counsel for the Democratic minority, in which capacity he wrote a report condemning McCarthy's investigation of alleged Communists in the Army. His later work as Chief Counsel for the Senate Rackets Committee investigating corruption in trade unions won him national recognition for exposing Teamsters' Union leaders Jimmy Hoffa and David Beck.

In 1960, he was the tireless and effective manager of John F. Kennedy's presidential campaign. A