HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — On Wednesday, June 12, Texans are commemorating what would have been former President George H.W. Bush’s 100th birthday.
George Herbert Walker Bush, born June 12, 1924, in Milton, Massachusetts, served as U.S. president from 1989 to 1993.
His son, George W. Bush, was elected president in 2000 and served two terms. Another son, Jeb — a former Florida governor — made an unsuccessful bid for the GOP nomination in 2016. Only one other U.S. president, John Adams, had a son who also became president.
Before serving as president, Bush was a former U.S. Navy pilot and lieutenant during World War II.
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During a bombing raid against the Japanese on Chichijima, Bush’s Grumman TBM Avenger aircraft took a fiery hit. With his engine ablaze, Bush bailed out of the aircraft and was left floating on the water for several hours until he could be rescued.
After graduating from Yale, Bush moved his wife, Barbara, and their children to west Texas, where the family ventured into the oil business.
In 1959, the Bush family moved along with Zapata Offshore Company to Houston, where he continued to serve as president.
Bush, who served as chairman of the Harris County Republican Party, was sworn into the U.S. Congress in 1967, and after two terms, was named U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations under President Richard Nixon.
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He also served as chairman of the Republican National Committee, chief of the U.S. Liaison Office to China under President Gerald R. Ford, and then director of the CIA.
In 1980, Bush joined then California Gov. Ronald Reagan on the Republican ticket for president and vice president, and became the nation’s 43rd vice president in January 1981.
Bush was elected president in his own right in 1988, defeating former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis.
He only served a single term as president.
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Bush died on November 30, 2018. He was survived by his five children and their spouses, 17 grandchildren (including three step-grandchildren), eight great-grandchildren and two siblings.
At Texas A&M University in College Station, the George and Barbara Bush Foundation is throwing a 41@100 centennial celebration all week to commemorate what would have been his birthday.
Beginning at 8 a.m. Thursday, the George H.W. Presidential Center will hold a grand opening of the Marine One and 4141 Locomotive pavilion.
The Marine One is the helicopter that carried Bush and his wife, Barbara, and the 4141 Locomotive is the train engine that led his funeral train.
