Joseph P. Kennedy Jr.

Joseph Patrick Kennedy Jr. (July 25, 1915 – August 12, 1944) was a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy. He was a member of the Kennedy family and the eldest of the nine children born to Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. During World War II, Kennedy was killed in action while serving as a land-based patrol bomber pilot, and posthumously awarded the Navy Cross. His father had aspirations for him to become U.S. president. He was a delegate to the 1940 Democratic National Convention and planned to run for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives after his military service as the first stepping stone on the path to the White House. Kennedy's death while participating in a top-secret mission in 1944 caused his father to transfer his aspirations to his next-oldest son, John F. Kennedy, who followed the path first planned for his older brother by advancing from the House to the U.S. Senate and then to the presidency. Early life and education Kennedy was born on July 25, 1915, in Hull, Massachusetts. He first attended the Dexter School in Brookline, Massachusetts, with his brother John. In 1933, he graduated from the Choate School in Wallingford, Connecticut. He then entered Harvard College, Cambridge, Massachusetts, from which he graduated in 1938 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in government. Kennedy participated in football, rugby, and crew and served on the student council. He then spent a year studying under the tutelage of Harold Laski at the London School of Economics before he enrolled at Harvard Law School. Political ambitions and views From a very young age, Kennedy was groomed by his father and predicted to be the first Roman Catholic U.S. president. When he was born, his grandfather John F. Fitzgerald, the mayor of Boston, told the news: "This child is the future president of the nation." He often boasted that he would be president even without help from his father.