President Barack Obama will remember Beau Biden, the late son of Vice President Joe Biden, during a funeral Mass in Delaware on Saturday, the White House says.
Obama will deliver the eulogy for the younger Biden, the former attorney general of Delaware, who died Saturday at 46. He had battled brain cancer.
In a statement Saturday night, Obama called Beau Biden a friend and “one of the strongest men we’ve ever known.”
“Like his dad, Beau was a good, big-hearted, devoutly Catholic and deeply faithful man who made a difference in the lives of all he touched — and he lives on in their hearts,” Obama said. “But for all that Beau Biden achieved in his life, nothing made him prouder; nothing made him happier; nothing claimed a fuller focus of his love and devotion than his family.”
Biden, an Iraq War veteran who left behind two young children, has been remembered since his death as a committed prosecutor who also inherited his father’s commitment to family and public service.
The funeral Mass is set for Saturday morning at the St. Anthony of Padua Roman Catholic Church in Wilmington, where the Biden family has been gathering since Beau’s death this weekend.
Ahead of the service, Beau Biden will lie in honor at the Legislative Hall in Dover. A public viewing and wake will take place Friday at the St. Anthony of Padua church.