Current presidential hopeful and former Vice President Joe Biden Jr. has mentioned in interviews how much his family has been an influence on him. This is probably most true of his father, after whom he's named: Joseph R. Biden Sr., who passed away in 2002. Born in Baltimore and raised in Wilmington, DE, Biden Sr. lived a life filled with challenges, including a time of poverty with his young family. Biden Jr. mentions his father while he's on the campaign trail, including the quote that has informed his life: "My dad always said, 'Champ, the measure of a man is not how often he is knocked down, but how quickly he gets up.'" It's become an important part of Biden's campaign, both as VP to President Barack Obama and now currently in 2020.
Joseph Biden Sr. fell on hard times after World War II.
Biden Sr. was initially wealthy, "sailing yachts off the New England coast, riding to the hounds, driving fast cars, flying airplanes." In 1944, Biden Sr. married Jean (maiden name Finnegan) from Scranton, PA. Biden Jr. was the oldest of four and portrays their time in Scranton as idyllic. Biden Sr. worked for a company that made sealant for merchant marine ships during World War II, but had difficulty finding work in the decades that followed.
As a result, the family went through financial difficulties; For a time, the children even went to live with their maternal grandparents. The family ended up moving to a suburb of Wilmington, and Biden Sr. worked initially selling used cars.
Biden Sr.'s influence on his son was profound.
Biden Jr. recounted a story about his father quitting a job that he felt morally opposed to:
"In his autobiography, he tells the story of his father quitting a job as sales manager for an auto dealership because the owner, who liked to reward his employees and customers with silver dollars, decided to amuse himself at the dealership’s Christmas party by spilling out a bucket of silver dollars on the dance floor to watch his workers scramble to scoop up the coins."
Biden Jr. explained that he learned that a job could embody both dignity and respect, instead of simply being a paycheck. In fact, when Biden Jr. became a senator (and after the tragic deaths of his first wife and daughter), “[Biden Sr.] gave up car sales and went into real estate,” according to Biden's younger sister Valerie Biden Owens. “He didn’t want a United States senator to have a used-car salesman for a dad.”
Biden Jr. also saw the impacts of alcohol on his family: Biden Sr., drank, and his mother's family had issues with alcohol. His brother Frankie and son Hunter have also dealt with addiction. "There are enough alcoholics in my family," Biden Jr. said in 2008, of why he doesn't drink at all.
Biden Sr. passed away in 2002.
Biden Sr. was a longstanding advocate of his son. In 1972, when Biden was all of 30 years old, he even "appeared onstage at rallies with his son and went door-to-door for him. With his senatorial bearing and his creased suits, many voters mistook him for the candidate, who looked barely old enough to vote."
The obituary appeared in The Baltimore Sun and said Biden Sr. had been in declining health in weeks prior to his death but wasn't specific about the cause. He died in Wilmington at Biden Jr.'s home. His wife passed away eight years later in 2010.
And it's obvious his father's still on his mind. In 2020, Biden Jr. wished his father a happy Father's Day, saying, "As my father believed, there’s no higher calling for a woman or a man than to be a good mother or a good father."
