Biography
Born in Milton, Mass., on June 12, 1924, George Herbert Walker Bush was both the 41st U.S. president and the father of a president. He was born into a politically active family, the son of former Connecticut Sen. Prescott Bush. He attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., where he started dating future wife Barbara Pierce; they married in January 1945. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy on his 18th birthday and became the Navy's youngest pilot during World War II. He flew a total of 58 combat missions during the war, and he had a brush with death when his plane was hit during a bombing run. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross for his service in WWII. Bush attended Yale University after the war, earning a degree in economics in 1948, and later moved to Midland, Texas, where he worked in the oil and petroleum industry. He became chairman of the Harris County Republican Party in 1963, a year before he unsuccessfully ran for one of Texas' seats in the U.S. Senate. He made another attempt at getting into Congress in 1966, this time being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. He served two terms in the House, then received several appointments, including U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in 1971 and CIA director in 1976. He eyed a presidential run, vying for the GOP nomination in 1980, ultimately losing to Ronald Reagan, who chose Bush to join him on the ticket as his running mate. Reagan defeated Democratic incumbent Jimmy Carter, and earned re-election in 1984. When Reagan's second term was coming to an end, Bush decided to go for the top job, facing off against Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis in the 1988 presidential election. Bush won, making him the first sitting vice president to be elected president since Martin Van Buren won the 1836 election. Bush dealt with important foreign affair issues in his presidency, including the collapse of the Soviet Union, the U.S. military's removal from power of Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, and then-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait. While he was dealing with issues abroad, an economic downturn occurred stateside and is sometimes blamed for Bush losing his re-election bid to Bill Clinton in 1992. Bush made many public appearances in support of oldest son George W. Bush when he ran for president in 2000, eventually beating Al Gore for the first of his two terms in the White House. The elder Bush joined forces with Clinton in 2005 to form the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund, an effort to raise money for Gulf Coast residents affected by Hurricane Katrina. President Barack Obama awarded Bush the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011. The 41st president famously celebrated his 80th, 85th and 90th birthdays by going skydiving and participated in the pregame coin toss at Super Bowl LI in Houston on Feb. 5, 2017, just days after being discharged following a hospital stay of more than two weeks. The former president died at his home in Houston on Friday, November 30, 2018.
