Who

One of the most famous (living) members of the Kennedy clan, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is an environmental attorney and activist as well as a potential political candidate.

Backstory

The third of 11 children born to Ethel Skakel Kennedy and Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Bobby Jr. was so obsessed with animals as a young kid that he assembled a zoo at his family's Virginia home and stocked it with dozens of reptiles and birds. Just 14 years old when he dad was assassinated (one of his teachers at the Georgetown Prep woke him up to deliver the news), Bobby went on to Harvard (one of his roommates was Peter Kaplan) and the University of Virginia Law School before following Kennedy family tradition and ending up at the center of scandal. In 1983, he was arrested for heroin possession after he passed out with a needle in his arm in a South Dakota airport bathroom. Entering a drug treatment program, he later pleaded guilty to possessing two-tenths of a gram of the drug and was sentenced to 800 hours of community service. He opted to put his time working at an environmental law center called Riverkeeper; when he was done with his court-mandated community service, the group appointed him its chief prosecuting attorney.

Kennedy has been involved with the organization ever since, and has become one of the most prominent environmental activists over the past two decades. In addition to Riverkeeper, he serves as senior attorney for the Frances Beinecke-led Natural Resources Defense Council, and he oversees Pace Law School's Environmental Litigation Clinic.

Of note

Riverkeeper was founded by Hudson River fishermen in 1966, and over the last 20 years Kennedy has helped prosecute a handful of corporations for polluting the Hudson River and Long Island Sound. At present, the group is fighting to shut down the Indian Point nuclear power plant, and working to conserve and protect the city's drinking water. In recent years, Kennedy's positions have turned more political, a response to George Bush's attempts to roll back environmental rules and regulations.

In 2004, he published Crimes Against Nature: How George W. Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy, and vocally campaigned against Bush. A year later, it was rumored that he would throw his own hat into the ring and run for attorney general. He decided against challenging Andrew Cuomo (which would have been more than a little awkward considering Cuomo is the ex-husband of his sister, Kerry). But he remains a potential contender for higher office in the future. These days, in addition to the various environmental causes he's associated with, he's the host of a lefty radio show, Ring of Fire, on Air America, and, like any good liberal, regularly posts anti-Bush missives on the Huffington Post.

Family ties

In 1984, his younger brother David Kennedy died of a drug overdose. Another brother, Michael, was killed in 1997 after skiing into a tree whilst drunk. Sister Kerry Kennedy (who was married to Andrew Cuomo) attends to non-profit work. Older brother Joseph used to be a U.S. congressman. And his eldest sister, Kathleen, ran (and lost) a campaign for Maryland governor. Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg is his first cousin.

In person

Kennedy bears an uncanny resemblance to his father, and he plays it up with hair parted to the side and clean-cut ties and suits. He doesn't quite sound the same, though. He suffers from spasmodic dysphonia, a neurological condition that strains his speech.

Personal

In March 1994, Kennedy caused a sensation when he divorced his first wife, Emily Ruth Black, with whom he had two children, and married Mary Richardson less than a month later. Kennedy and Richardson have since had four kids together; the family lives 10-bedroom lake home in Mount Kisco. The spread sits on five acres and features a barn where they keep a chicken coop.

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