Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. (Napoleon's World)

Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Sr. (September 6, 1888 - November 18, 1969) was the 29th President of the United States of America, as well as a prominent businessman and leader of the Democratic Party, serving briefly as both a Senator and Governor for Massachusetts in the 1930's. Kennedy was viewed as an icon in the Irish-American and Catholic community and as a champion of the early progressive element in the Democratic Party as well as being an "old-fashioned economic Democrat," but despite victories for the labor movement and his overhaul of the US financial system to make it more competitive, Kennedy was unable to win reelection due to the lengthy early-1940's recession in the United States and his damning allegiance with the fallen Edmond Bonaparte regime in France, losing in 1944 to Prescott Bush.

He is regarded as the patriarch of the Kennedy political family, being the father of Massachusetts Governor and 1964 Democratic Presidential candidate Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., Hollywood director, producer and kingmaker John Kennedy, Sr., longtime Boston businessman, Boston Paddies owner and MLB Commissioner Robert Kennedy, and Boston financier and former Mayor Edward Kennedy.

He is also the paternal grandfather of former Massachusetts Governor Dan Kennedy, former Massachusetts Congressman Joseph P. Kennedy III, Nova Scotia Senator Patricia Kennedy, New York Senator John Kennedy, Jr., former Connecticut Congressman Patrick Kennedy, former Eastbank CFO Joseph F. Kennedy, former Vermont Governor David Kennedy, and former Ohio Congressman Peter Kennedy.