This article was based on a picture that I did not know was copyrighted by Corbis and therefore I have had to delete it. The picture showed former Congressman Bob Michel (R-Peoria), (above) who served as Minority Leader of the U.S. House, and former Merchandise Mart President R. Sargent Shriver (below), who was the 1972 Democratic nominee for Vice President of the United States. They are shown in 1994 at a White House ceremony honoring 
winners of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Both men were active members of the nonpartisan Illinois State Society of Washington, DC in the 1960s and Michel was president of the society 1966-1967.
Bob Michel was born in Peoria on March 2, 1923 and attended Peoria public schools. He served as a combat infantryman with the 39th Infantry Regiment in World War II from 1943 to 1945. Michel saw service in England, France, Belgium, and Germany. He was wounded by German machine gun fire and was awarded the Purple Heart, two Bronze Stars, and four battle stars. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes Forest on the German-Belgian border. The bitter battle in severe winter weather raged from Dec. 16, 1944 to Jan. 25, 1945 and engaged more than 1,155,000 British, American, and German troops. It was the largest single battle for 600,000 American soldiers since the combined Union and Confederate armies faced each other in 1863 at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania during the Civil War.
Bob Michel graduated from Bradley University in 1948. In 1956 he ran for a seat in Congress previously held by his former boss, Rep. Harold Velde. He served in the House for the next 38 years until his retirement in 1995. As the House Minority Whip 1979-1985 and the House Minority Leader from 1985 to 1995, he worked closely wiht Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush on their legislative agendas.
R. Sargent Shriver was born in Maryland in 1915. He was Chairman of the Yale Daily News as an undergruate and received his law degree from Yale Law School in 1941. He served as a lieutentant in the Navy during World War II. In 1949, former Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy hired Shriver to manage the Merchandise Mart in Chicago. In 1953 Shriver married the ambassador's daughter, Eunice Kennedy.
From 1955 to 1960, Shriver served as President of the Chicago Board of Education and became a friend and political ally of Mayor Richard J. Daley. Shriver campaigned for his brother-in-law, Sen. John F. Kennedy, for president in 1960 and was appointed by President Kennedy to head the Peace Corps in 1961. After 11 years in Illinois, Shriver moved back to Maryland where he hosted the annual picnics of the Illinois State Society on his estate. He later served as Ambassador to France and was the Democratic nominee for Vice President on a ticket headed by Sen. George McGovern in 1972. In recent years he served as the president of Special Olympics. His daughter, former NBC News reporter Maria Shriver, was born in Chicago in 1955. He is the father-in-law of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-California).
