George Herbert Walker Bush 1924–2018

The 41st President and father of the 43rd left a lasting legacy of service

- Jon Meacham

OUR BETTER ANGELS

George H.W. Bush believed in the essential goodness of the American people

HE WANTED TO GO AS SOON AS HE HEARD.

On the afternoon of Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941, George Herbert Walker Bush—known as “Poppy” to family and friends—was walking on the campus of Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., when word came of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He was 17½ years old. He longed to defend his country— right then, right away, no waiting around. Told he would have to turn 18 before he could enlist in the U.S. armed forces, a determined Bush explored the option of going to Canada to join the Royal Air Force. He was that ready to risk everything for a cause larger than himself.

And so there it all was, even in the beginning: a boundless energy and a hunger to serve; a thirst for adventure and a love of country. Six months later, on Friday, June 12, 1942, he marked his 18th birthday, he graduated from Andover, and he drove to Boston to be sworn in as a naval enlistee. From that day until his death more than 75 years later, on Nov. 30, 2018, George H.W. Bush served his country in sundry capacities—including a notable term as President of the United States in an era of what he called “a fascinating time of change in the world itself.”

George H.W. Bush was a President largely in the tradition of the soldier-statesman Dwight D. Eisenhower, who said that his goal was to take America “down the middle of the road between the unfettered power of concentrated wealth . . . and the unbridled power of statism or partisan interests.”