| Notes |
- From FindaGrave:
41st United States President.
Born in Milton, Massachusettes, the son of Dorothy Walker and Prescott Sheldon Bush, an investment banker and U.S. Senator for Connecticut.
After graduation from Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, he joined the Naval Reserve the day after his 18th birthday, and was commissioned as an ensign. He served from 1942 to 1944 in an Avenger torpedo bomber in the Pacific Theatre of Operation with a Torpedo Squadron based on the USS San Jacinto aircraft carrier. He flew 58 combat missions, his aircraft was shot down by enemy anti-aircraft in 1944. For his service he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.
In January 1945, he married Barbara Pierce.
He was graduated from Yale University in 1948, after which he moved to Texas where he sold oil field supplies. He then co-founded the Bush-Overbey Oil Development Company in 1951, the Zapata Petroleum Corporation in 1953, and the Zapata Off-Shore Company in 1954.
Five years later, he became active in politics. He ran an unsuccessful senate campaign in 1964, but won a seat in the House in 1966. In 1974, President Gerald Ford named him to the US Liason Office in Beijing, which was then the senior US representative in China. Two years later, he was appointed the director of the CIA, then mired in scandal, and was credited with turning the agency around, repairing its reputation and relationships. He resigned the directorship in 1977.
In 1979 he announced his candidacy for president. In May 1980, he threw his support behind Ronald Reagan, who then chose Bush as his running mate. The ticket won overwhelmingly in 1980 and 1984.
He secured the Republican nomination for President in 1988, eventually winning 53 percent of the popular vote. His tenure was noted for its strong foreign policy which included the 1990 mutual nonaggression pact with the Soviet Union and in 1991 Desert Storm. In 1992, thorny domestic issues and a third party candidate cost him a second term, and he retired to Texas. In 1999, the CIA honored him by naming their headquarters at Langley, Virginia after him. In 2004, he was named UN special envoy for the disaster following the Indian Ocean tsunami. In 2011 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
In April 2018, his wife of 73 years passed, and he entered the hospital the following day. He was able to celebrate his 94th birthday in Maine the following June. He was the first president in US history to reach that landmark. He succumbed five months later, and was given a state funeral. He was eulogized by his son, former President George W. Bush, as "a man of the highest character." He was the last World War II veteran to serve as US President.
Bio by: Iola
Inscription
GEORGE BUSH
LTJG USNR 173464
41st PRESIDENT
OF THE UNITED STATES
|
1924 - 2018 (94 years)
