Shriver was diagnosed with the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease in 2003. He lived in Potomac, Md., and was with his five children, their spouses and his 19 grandchildren at the time of his death, according to a statement from the Shriver family.

Shriver was married for 56 years to Eunice Kennedy, President John F. Kennedy’s younger sister, who died at 88 in August 2009. He devoted his life to public service, leading President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty and establishing social programs that included Head Start and Legal Services for the Poor.

President Barack Obama, in a statement, called Shriver “one of the brightest lights of the Greatest Generation.”

Obama said Shriver embodied the idea of public service over a long career and will be most remembered as founding director of the Peace Corps.

“His loss will be felt in all of the communities around the world that have been touched by Peace Corps volunteers over the past half century and all of the lives that have been made better by his efforts to address inequality and injustice here at home,” the president said.

Shriver’s daughter, journalist and author Maria Shriver, is married to actor and former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.