Joseph P. Kennedy

Joseph P. Kennedy (1888-1969), American businessman and government official. Born in Boston, the son of a local politician and small businessman, he studied at Harvard University. By the age of 30 he had amassed a fortune through business ventures that included motion pictures, shipbuilding, and real estate, and through stock-market speculation (using practices that he outlawed in 1934-1935, as the first chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission). As chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission (1937) he laid the groundwork for the U.S. merchant marine. He was ambassador to Britain from 1938 to 1940. His wife, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, is the daughter of John Francis Fitzgerald, who was twice mayor of Boston. Of their nine children, the oldest, Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Jr., was killed in combat in World War II; John F. Kennedy was 35th president of the U.S.; Robert F. Kennedy was a prominent U.S. senator; and Edward M. Kennedy is a noted U.S. senator.