Former President George H.W. Bush has died at age 94 in Houston, Texas. He had lived in that city since losing the 1992 presidential election, but had also maintained a home in Kennebunkport, Maine. For several years, he had been confined to a wheelchair due to a form of Parkinson's disease.
George Herbert Walker Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts to businessman Prescott Bush and the former Dorothy Walker (whose father was George Herbert Walker). The family moved to Connecticut, where Prescott Bush would later be elected to the U.S. Senate. After graduating from Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, George Bush enlisted in the U.S. Navy, becoming its youngest pilot. During an attack against Japanese positions on Chichijima during World War II, Bush's plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire. After successfully dropping his bombs, Bush and another crewman bailed out. He was rescued by a submarine and later returned to pilot duty. After earning several medals, he was discharged in September 1945.
In January 1945, Bush married Barbara Pierce, whom he had first met three years earlier. After leaving the Navy, he enrolled at Yale, where he played baseball and joined a secret society called Skull and Bones. He became a father in 1946, and after graduating in 1948, moved his family to western Texas, where he entered the oil business. The Bushes had five more children, but one of them, a daughter born in 1949 named Robin, died of leukemia in 1953.
In 1964, Bush ran unsuccessfully for the Senate, but was elected to the House of Representatives in 1966 and 1968. He again lost the Senate race in 1970, after which President Nixon appointed him to be Ambassador to the United Nations. President Ford would later appoint Bush to be an envoy to China and the Director of the CIA. In 1980, he was Ronald Reagan's running mate, and then served for eight years as Vice President. In 1988, Bush became the first sitting Vice President since 1836 to successfully run for President. During his presidency, he launched Operation Desert Storm, a military effort involving a coalition of more than 30 countries, which ended the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait. On his watch, the Soviet Union collapsed and Germany was reunified, as communism fell in Europe. Domestically, Bush faced economic difficulties including a recession, and signed a tax increase passed by the Democrat-controlled Congress, thus breaking his "read my lips, no new taxes" pledge. In 1992, he was defeated in his bid for reelection by Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton, the election also including a strong third party challenge from Ross Perot. In later years, Bush and Clinton would form a somewhat unlikely friendship, working together on several charity and disaster relief efforts. Bush would also come to celebrate birthdays with a skydive.
After Bush's oldest son George W. Bush (who had been the governor of Texas) was elected President, Bush was often identified with his two middle initials, as "Bush 41", or as "George Bush Sr.", to distinguish him from his son, sometimes called "Bush 43", or by his middle initial "W". (The title "Sr." is technically incorrect, since W's full name does not include "Herbert". I've liked to use "the Elder" and "the Younger" to distinguish the two.) Bush's son John Ellis Bush, known as "Jeb", has been the governor of Florida.
Bush was preceded in death by his wife Barbara and their daughter Robin, and is survived by their children George W., Jeb, Neil, Marvin and Doro, along with 17 grandchildren.
Read more at NBC News, CNN, The Washington Post, Politico and Fox News.
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