“Joe did many things well, as his record illustrates, but I have always felt that Joe achieved his greatest success as the oldest brother. Very early in life he acquired a sense of responsibility towards his brothers and sisters, and I do not think that he ever forgot it. Towards me who was nearly his own age, this responsibility consisted in setting a standard that was uniformly high. For example, I never heard him utter a foul word or, until the last two or three years, ever swear. I suppose I knew Joe as well as anyone and yet, I sometimes wonder whether I ever really knew him. He had always a slight detachment from things around him—a wall of reserve which few people ever succeeded in penetrating. I do not mean by this that Joe was ponderous and heavy in his attitude. Far from it—I do not know anyone with whom I would rather have spent an evening or played golf or, in fact, done anything. He had a keen wit and saw the humorous side of people and situations quicker than anyone I have ever known.

He would spend long hours throwing a football with Bobby, swimming with Teddy, and teaching the younger girls how to sail. He was always close to Kick and was particularly close to her during some difficult times. I think that if the Kennedy children amount to anything now or ever amount to anything, it will be due more to Joe’s behavior and his constant example than to any other factor. He made the task of bringing up a large family immeasurably easier for my father and mother for what they taught him, he passed on to us, and their teachings were not diluted through him, but rather strengthened.

In appearance he resembled most his mother and he inherited from her a singular consideration and love for younger people and the gift of winning their affections immediately. From his father, Joe inherited a tremendous drive and capacity for work and a flowing and infectious vitality…

It is the realization that the future held the promise of great accomplishments for Joe that has made his death so particularly hard for those who knew him. His worldly success was so assured and inevitable that his death seems to have cut into the natural order of things. But at the same time, there is a completeness to Joe’s life, and that is the completeness of perfection. His life as he lived and finally, as he died, could hardly have been improved upon…

He had great physical courage and stamina, a complete confidence in himself which never faltered, and he did everything with a great verve and gusto, and though these very qualities were in the end his undoing, yet they made his life a wonderful one to live.

And through it all, he had a deep and abiding Faith—he was never far from God—and so, I cannot help but feel that on that August day, high in the summer skies, ‘death to him was less a setting forth than a returning.’ ”

EXCERPT FROM JOHN F. KENNEDY’S ESSAY “MY BROTHER JOE,” FROM AS WE REMEMBER JOE