Joseph Patrick Kennedy Biography

(born Sept. 6, 1888, Boston, Mass., U.S.—died Nov. 18, 1969, Hyannis Port, Mass.) U.S. businessman and financier. He graduated from Harvard University in 1912. He was a bank president by age 25 and a millionaire at age 30. He became a shipbuilder, a motion-picture tycoon, and a large contributor to the Democratic Party. During the 1920s he acquired a large fortune by speculating in the stock market; he is also alleged to have traded in bootleg liquor during Prohibition. Later, as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (1934–35), he outlawed the speculative practices, including insider trading and stock manipulation, that had made him rich. He was the first Irish American to serve as ambassador to Britain (1937–40). With his wife, Rose, he encouraged academic and athletic competitiveness in his children and expected the boys in the family—including John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Edward Kennedy—to pursue careers in public service. His role in John Kennedy's narrow victory over Richard Nixon in the 1960 presidential election has long been the subject of controversy.