What happened to Joe Biden’s father? President references his dad’s unemployment in inaugural address

Joe Biden Sr was an important influence in 46th president’s life

During his inaugural address after he became the 46th US president, Joe Biden referenced his father, Joseph Robinette Biden Sr, as he spoke about the fears many Americans have about unemployment amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

“I understand that many view future with fear and trepidation. I understand they worry about their jobs,” President Biden said during his address on Wednesday.

“I understand, like my dad, they lay in bed at night staring at the ceiling wondering, can I keep my healthcare? Can I pay my mortgage? Thinking about their families, about what comes next.

“I promise you, I get it. But the answer is not to turn inward, to retreat into competing factions, distrusting those who don’t look like you or worship the way you do or don’t get their news from the same sources you do,” he added.

Biden Sr died in 2002, before his son became US vice president and then president, but who was Mr Biden’s father?

Who was Joe Biden’s father?

Biden Sr was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, on 13 November 1915, and went on to marry Mr Biden’s mother, Catherine Eugenia Biden, commonly known as Jean, in 1941.

Mr Biden was born in the same town as his father just one year later in 1942, but the family struggled in his early years as Biden Sr, who had previously been successful in work, had financial setbacks, causing the family to move in with Jean’s parents.

A couple of years later in 1944, Biden Sr took a job in Boston at his uncle’s business, Sheen Armor Company, which was well-paid and allowed the family to lead a more comfortable life.

Read more: Follow live updates and news on Inauguration Day 2021

However, after the business struggled after the end of World War II, causing Biden Sr to go back to Scranton and attempt to set up a furniture business with a friend.

It didn’t work out, as The Telegraph reported that the friend took the start-up money and left. A subsequent crop-dusting enterprise was also a failure, and the family moved back in with Jean’s parents again for a number of years as Biden Sr struggled to find stable work.

Four years later, when Mr Biden was 10, Biden Sr got a job cleaning boilers for a heating and air-conditioning company in Wilmington, Delaware, where the family ended up settling.

After a few years, Biden Sr took a job in used-car sales, and the family then settled into a modest life in Wilmington.

At just the age of 30, Mr Biden chose to run for senator in Delaware, and received enthusiastic support from his father.

Biden Sr joined Mr Biden on stage during several campaign rallies and went door-to-door for him, often being mistaken for the candidate.

Following Mr Biden’s election victory in Delaware, Biden Sr gave up his job in car sales and went into real estate, before he later retired.

Valerie Biden Owens, Mr Biden’s younger sister, explained to The New York Times in 2008 that he made the decision to leave car sales because “he didn’t want a United States senator to have a used-car salesman for a dad.”

Speaking about his father to the Times in 2008 during his second unsuccessful campaign for president, Mr Biden said that his dad’s determination amid his unemployment helped shape him into the man he is today.

Mr Biden highlighted his father’s influence on his success, saying: “My dad always said, ‘Champ, the measure of a man is not how often he is knocked down, but how quickly he gets up.’”