Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.

Joseph Patrick "Joe" Kennedy, Sr. (September 6, 1888 – November 18, 1969) was an American businessman, investor, and politician. Kennedy was the husband of Rose Kennedy. Their children included President John F. Kennedy (1917–1963), Attorney General and Senator Robert F. Kennedy (1925–1968), and longtime Senator Ted Kennedy (1932–2009). He was a leading member of the Democratic Party and of the Irish Catholic community. He was the inaugural Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and later directed the Maritime Commission. Kennedy served as the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1938 until late 1940, including the early part of World War II.

Born to a political family in East Boston, Massachusetts, Kennedy embarked on a career in business and investing, first making a large fortune as a stock market and commodity investor and later rolled over the profits by investing in real estate and a wide range of business industries across the United States. During World War I, he was an assistant general manager of a Boston area Bethlehem Steel shipyard, through which he developed a friendship with Franklin D. Roosevelt, then Assistant Secretary of the Navy. In the 1920s Kennedy made huge profits from reorganizing and refinancing several Hollywood studios, ultimately merging several acquisitions into Radio-Keith-Orpheum (RKO) studios.

Joseph Kennedy (disambiguation)

Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. (1888–1969) was a United States businessman and political figure, father of President John F. Kennedy.

Other Josephs in his family:

Joseph Kennedy may also refer to:

Joseph Kennedy (professor)

Joseph P. Kennedy is a Distinguished Professor of Polymer Science and Chemistry at the University of Akron, noted particularly for inventing a polymer coating for a drug-tipped stent that is highly compatible to human tissue, and that was successfully commercialized by Boston Scientific.

Personal

Joseph Kenedi spent his youth in Budapest, Hungary during World War II and the beginning of the Cold War. His father was killed by the Nazis, and his mother was imprisoned by communists. In 1948, he was kicked out of the college where he earned his first degree in chemistry, "for being too bourgeois".

At age 19, he fled to Austria as an illegal immigrant. He gained citizenship upon earning his doctorate in biochemistry from the University of Vienna, and he then completed postgraduate work at the Sorbonne in France.

In 1954, he immigrated to be close to family in Canada, and to take another postdoc position in Montreal. There he met Ingrid, who later became his wife.

Following many years of success in his field, Kennedy accepted an Honorary Doctorate from Kossuth University in 1989. He was also elected a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1993.