Facts about George Bush
George Bush Biography
George Bush was the 41st president of the United States, serving a single term from 1989-1993. His son, George W. Bush, also was president from 2001-2009.
George Bush the elder had a varied career in private industry and public service. He was a World War II pilot, Texas oil tycoon, Republican congressman, U.N. ambassador and then Director of the Central Intelligence Agency before being selected as vice president under Ronald Reagan in the elections of 1980.
After eight years in the Reagan administration, Bush defeated Michael Dukakis in 1988 to become president himself, promising a “kinder, gentler nation.” He was president during the fall of the Berlin Wall, the breakup of the Soviet Union and the end of the classic Cold War. But in spite of George Bush’s near-record popularity after military strikes against Panama and a successful war against Iraq, domestic discontent over economic and social issues took their toll; he ran for re-election in 1992 but was defeated by Democrat Bill Clinton.
Eight years later Bush’s son George W. Bush followed Bill Clinton as president after defeating Clinton’s vice president, Al Gore, in the elections of 2000. George W. Bush served two full terms and was succeeded by Barack Obama in 2009.
Bush spent his final years in a wheelchair as a result of vascular parkinsonism, an atypical relative of Parkinson’s Disease. He died in 2018, about seven months after the death of his wife Barbara. His body lay in state in the U.S. Capitol rotunda from December 3-5, 2018.
Extra credit
George Bush married Barbara Pierce in January of 1945; they had six children: George W. (born 1946), Pauline (known as Robin, b. 1949), John (known as Jeb, b. 1953), Neil (b. 1955), Marvin (b. 1956), and Dorothy (known as Doro, b. 1959). Robin died of leukemia in 1953… Jeb Bush was governor of Florida in from 1998-2006, and was in office during the state’s controversial vote count that ultimately made his brother George president… Because Bush was the 41st president, he was sometimes referred to as “41,” and his son, George W. Bush, is likewise referred to as “43″…George Bush is also the grandfather of “First Twins” Jenna and Barbara Bush… George Bush had vascular parkinsomism, which the Baylor College of Medicine describes as “a form of ‘atypical parkinsonism’ in which parkinsonian symptoms (slow movements, tremor, difficulty with walking and balance, stiffness and rigidity) are produced by one or more small strokes, rather than by gradual loss of nerve cells as seen in the more typical neurodegenerative Parkinson’s disease.”