George H. W. Bush

Described as

41st President of the United States (1989–1993)

Other names

George Bush, Sr., George Herbert Bush, H W Bush, Bush I, President Bush, George Bush Snr., H.W. Bush, George H W, President George H.W. Bush, H. W. Bush, George Bush Sr., Bush Sr.

Born

June 12, 1924 · 10 references

Died

November 30, 2018 · 9 references

Born in

Milton · 3 references

Died in

West Oaks · 3 references

Buried in

George Bush Presidential Library

Cause of death

Parkinson's disease

Name at birth

George Herbert Walker Bush

Citizen of

United States

Occupation

politician · 2 references; naval officer; baseball player; diplomat; aircraft pilot; entrepreneur · 2 references; autobiographer; statesperson

Positions held

United States representative (1967–1971); President of the United States (1989–1993); Vice President of the United States (1981–1989); Director of Central Intelligence (1976–1977); United States Ambassador to the United Nations (1971–1973); United States Ambassador to China (1974–1975); President-elect of the United States (1988–1989)

Political party

Republican Party

Worked for

Central Intelligence Agency (1976–1977)

Education

Greenwich Country Day School (–1936); Phillips Academy (1936–1942) · 1 reference; Yale University (1945–1948); Robert A. Taft Information Technology High School; Davenport College

Member of

American Academy of Arts and Sciences · 1 reference; American Legion; Phi Beta Kappa Society; Skull and Bones; Trilateral Commission; Veterans of Foreign Wars

Teams

Yale Bulldogs baseball · 1 reference

Sport

American football

Awards

Distinguished Flying Cross; honorary citizen of Berlin; Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath; Eric M. Warburg Award (2002); Order of the White Lion (1999); Air Medal; Philadelphia Liberty Medal; Freedom Award (2005); Robert Schuman Medal (2014); Profile in Courage Award (2014) · 1 reference; Ronald Reagan Freedom Award; Jubilee Medal "60 Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"; Presidential Medal of Freedom (2011) · 1 reference; Doublespeak Award (2 times) (1990, 1992); Theodore Roosevelt Award (1986)

Field

politics · 1 reference; government · 1 reference

Spouse

Barbara Bush (1945–2018) · 2 references

Children

George W. Bush · 2 references; Jeb Bush · 2 references; Neil Bush · 1 reference; Marvin P. Bush · 1 reference; Dorothy Bush Koch · 1 reference; Robin Bush · 1 reference

Father

Prescott Bush · 1 reference

Mother

Dorothy Walker Bush · 1 reference

Siblings

Nancy Walker Bush; Jonathan Bush; William H. T. Bush; Prescott S. Bush, Jr. · 1 reference

Religion

Episcopal Church

Military branch

United States Navy (1942–1945)

Military rank

lieutenant (junior grade)

Lived in

Bush Family Home State Historic Site (1952–1955) · 1 reference

Height

1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)

Website

https://www.bush41.org/

Wikipedias with a page

198

Wikidata item Q23505 (wikidata.org/wiki/Q23505), public domain (CC0). Copied November 13, 2026.

George Herbert Walker Bush (June 12, 1924 – November 30, 2018) was the 41st president of the United States from 1989 to 1993. A member of the Republican Party, he also served as the 43rd vice president under President Ronald Reagan from 1981 to 1989. A pragmatist with myriad political experience, having previously held the offices of Director of Central Intelligence, Chair of the Republican National Committee, and U.S. Ambassador to China and the United Nations, Bush was the father of the 43rd president of the United States, George W. Bush.
Born into the prominent and wealthy Bush family in Milton, Massachusetts, Bush was raised in Greenwich, Connecticut, and attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy Reserve on his 18th birthday, flying 58 combat missions during World War II and earning the Distinguished Flying Cross. Bush moved to Texas and ventured in the oil industry, starting the company Zapata Corporation and becoming a millionaire by the age of 40. He ran unsuccessfully for the United States Senate in 1964 and 1970, but was elected to represent Texas in the United States House of Representatives in 1966. Afterward, he held a variety of ambassadorial, federal, and party positions in the administrations of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford from 1971 to 1977. Bush ran for president in 1980 for that year's presidential election but lost the Republican presidential primaries to Reagan, who later picked him as his running mate. Bush ran again in 1988 and won the presidential election against Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis.
Foreign policy drove Bush's presidency as he navigated the final years of the Cold War and played a key role in the reunification of Germany. He presided over the U.S. invasion of Panama and the Gulf War, ending the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait in the latter conflict. Though the agreement was not ratified until after he left office, Bush negotiated and signed the North American Free Trade Agreement, which created a trade bloc consisting of the United States, Canada and Mexico. Domestically, Bush backpedaled on a 1988 campaign promise by enacting legislation to raise taxes that he justified as necessary to reducing the budget deficit. He championed and signed three pieces of bipartisan legislation in 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Immigration Act and the Clean Air Act Amendments. He also appointed David Souter and Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. Bush lost the 1992 presidential election to Democrat Bill Clinton following an economic recession, his turnaround on his tax promise, and the decreased emphasis of foreign policy in a post–Cold War political climate.
After leaving office in 1993, Bush was active in humanitarian activities, often working alongside Clinton. With the victory of his eldest son, George W. Bush, in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections, the two became the second father–son pair to serve as the nation's president, following John Adams and John Quincy Adams. His second son, Jeb Bush, unsuccessfully sought the Republican presidential nomination in the 2016 primaries. After a long battle with vascular parkinsonism, he died at his home in Houston in 2018. Historians generally rank Bush as an above-average president.

Born, in its opening lines

June 12, 1924

Died, in its opening lines

November 30, 2018

From the Wikipedia article “George H. W. Bush” (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_H._W._Bush), by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Copied November 13, 2026; not changed.