Facts To Know About George H.W. Bush

HOUSTON (AP) — You knew him as George H.W. Bush, the 41st President of the United States and life long public servant.  But the World War II hero and great-grandfather also was an avid skydiver, played in the first-ever College World Series and was the longest-married president in U.S. history.

 

ST. PAUL, MN - SEPTEMBER 02: Former President George H.W. Bush (L) and former first lady Barbara Bush (C) point from their seats on day two of the Republican National Convention (RNC) at the Xcel Energy Center on September 2, 2008 in St. Paul, Minnesota. The GOP will nominate U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) as the Republican choice for U.S. President on the last day of the convention. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

 

Here's a closer look at those and other elements of his life:

NICKNAMES: George H.W. Bush was known to his family as "Poppy." His wife said her husband was named after his maternal grandfather, who was known as "Pops," so the younger Bush was called "Little Pops." The nickname evolved into Poppy, which Bush "hated as he got older, but it was hard to break such a long-standing habit," Barbara Bush wrote in her memoir. But his grandchildren knew him as "Gampy," a name he embraced.

 

372407 01 :BUSH RETROSPECTIVE: Portrait of the Bush family in front of their Kennebunkport, Maine August 24, 1986. BACK ROW: Margaret holding daughter Marshall, Marvin Bush, Bill LeBlond. FRONT ROW: Neil Bush holding son Pierce, Sharon, George W. Bush holding daughter Barbara, Laura Bush holding daughter Jenna, Barbara Bush, George Bush, Sam LeBlond, Doro Bush Lebond, George P.(jeb's son), Jeb Bush holding son Jebby, Columba Bush, and Noelle Bush. (Photo by Newsmakers

 

MEETING HIS WIFE: Bush met his wife at a dance in Greenwich, Connecticut, in 1941. He was a 17-year-old high school senior, while she was 16 and attending school in Charleston, South Carolina, and home for Christmas. The band was playing Glenn Miller tunes, but when he asked her to dance, the music changed to a waltz. He didn't how to waltz, so they talked. They were married on Jan. 6, 1945, and were the longest-married presidential couple. She died on April 17, 2018

 

George Herbert Walker Bush poses with his wife Barbara during his campaign for Congress in the 1960's. Born 12 June 1924 in Milton, Massachussetts, George Bush Yale graduated with a degree in Economics in 1948, made a fortune drilling oil before entering politics in 1964. US Congressman from Texas (1966-1970), ambassador to the United nations (1971-1974), Special Envoy to China (1974-1975), Republican National Chairman (1975-1976), Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director (1976-1977), vice president of the US (1981-1959) George Bush is eventually elected president of the US 08 November 1988 against Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis. AFP PHOTO/WHITE HOUSE (Photo credit should read /AFP/Getty Images)

 

THE SEA: Bush's lifelong love of the sea and boats began in Maine, with his grandfather teaching him how to handle and dock a boat. At age 9, he and his 11-year-old brother were first allowed to take out their grandfather's lobster boat by themselves. Bush wrote in a 1987 book that he loved "the physical sensation of steering a powerful machine, throttle open." In 2010, to enjoy at his home in Maine, he bought a 38-foot fishing boat, Fidelity V, equipped with three 300-horsepower engines and capable of reaching 75 mph.

 

President elect George Bush is smashed by a wave 14 November 1988 while fishing in back of the home of William Farish in Florida. (Photo credit should read ROBERT SULLIVAN/AFP/Getty Images)

 

COLLEGE STATION, TX - JUNE 13: Former U.S. President George H.W. Bush (C, bottom) performs a tandem parachute jump with Army Golden Knight Sgt. Bryan Schnell on June 13, 2004 over the Bush Presidential Library in College Station, Texas. Bush made two jumps today to celebrate his 80th birthday. (Photo by U.S. Army/Texas A&M University via Getty Images)

 

THE AIR: During World War II, Bush was one of the Navy's youngest pilots when he was shot down during a 1944 bombing mission. He parachuted into the Pacific Ocean and was rescued by an American submarine. He fulfilled a wartime promise to himself to someday skydive just for fun in 1997, when at age 73 and over his family's objections, he bailed out over a military base in Arizona, "to show that old guys can still do stuff," he said. He later marked his 75th, 80th, 85th and 90th birthdays with parachute jumps.

 

ARLINGTON, TX - OCTOBER 31: Former President of the United States, George W. Bush, throws out the first pitch as his father Former President George H.W. Bush looks on before the Texas Rangers host the San Francisco Giants in Game Four of the 2010 MLB World Series at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington on October 31, 2010 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)

 

BASEBALL: As a first baseman and captain of his baseball team at Yale University, Bush played in the first-ever College World Series in 1947. His team lost to the University of California. Yale again reached the College World Series finals in 1948 and this time lost to Southern California. Sparky Anderson, who would win the World Series as manager of the Cincinnati Reds and Detroit Tigers, was a batboy on the Southern Cal team.

OIL: Bush learned the oil industry in West Texas, starting in 1948 as an equipment clerk for an oilfield services company. He drove from New England to Texas in a 1947 Studebaker and ordered his first chicken fried steak — a Texas staple — at a restaurant in Abilene, wondering if it was chicken or steak but trying to fit in. The deep-fried steak smothered in gravy became a Bush favorite. A restored 1947 Studebaker identical to the one he owned is on display at his presidential museum at Texas A&M University.

 

KUWAIT CITY, KUWAIT - JANUARY 19: Former US President George Bush and troops of the US Air Force 332nd Air Expeditionary Group in Kuwait City 19 January 2000 join their hands in an inverted "V" to imitate the Arabic numeral 8 which was the allied identification sign during the Gulf War. Bush, on a visit to Kuwait coinciding with the ninth anniversary of the start of the Gulf War, gave a short speech to the troops about the importance of their mission in the region. (Photo credit should read RAED QUTENA/AFP/Getty Images)

 

GULF WAR: The signature event of Bush's presidency was the 1991 Gulf War. But when he ordered U.S. troops to Kuwait, he acknowledged, he was prepared for the worst. "We feared it would go badly," he told The Associated Press in 2011, on the 20th anniversary of Operation Desert Storm. "But it went far more clean ... far more quickly, far less loss of our lives and Iraqi lives, than we worried about. It was very rewarding."

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Bush said he wrote one letter-to-the-editor as president, and it went to The New York Times regarding a story about him being out of touch because he didn't know about grocery store price-scanning devices. "I was — I thought — smeared by an ugly story," he said in a 1999 C-SPAN interview. Bush said his remark describing the device as "amazing" came at a convention showing off the new technology and was portrayed by "some lazy little reporter ... (who) wasn't even there. ... And the damn story lived on."

 

WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 16: Russian President Boris Yeltsin (l), shown in picture dated 16 June 1992 in Washington, DC, throws a horseshoe while playing the game outside the White House Oval Office with US President George Bush. Yeltsin was on an official State visit to U.S. (Photo credit should read J. DAVID AKE/AFP/Getty Images)

 

HORSESHOES: During his White House years, Bush annually held two horseshoe tournaments with teams made up of everyone who worked there, including groundskeepers, pilots, cooks and gardeners. "One of the best things we did," he recalled during a 2000 interview with Time magazine. He headed the ranking committee, making himself and son Marvin the top seeds. The horseshoe pits were by the southwest gate on the White House grounds, and the sounds of clanging horseshoes could be heard daily as workers practiced ahead of the tournaments.

 

WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 4: Sully, a yellow Labrador service dog for former President George H. W. Bush, sits near the casket of the late former President George H.W. Bush as he lies in state at the U.S. Capitol, December 4, 2018 in Washington, DC. A WWII combat veteran, Bush served as a member of Congress from Texas, ambassador to the United Nations, director of the CIA, vice president and 41st president of the United States. Bush will lie in state in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda until Wednesday morning. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

 

FINAL RESTING PLACE: After suffering an irregular heartbeat in 2000, he told reporters as he was released from a Florida hospital that mortality was something he thought about "but not with fear. If you've got faith, you don't think of it with fear." His burial site, behind his presidential museum in College Station, Texas, is near a pond and across a footbridge over a creek where three large post oaks form a semicircle. "The loveliest resting spot I have ever seen," Barbara Bush once described it. Their daughter, Robin, who died of leukemia at age 3 in 1953, was moved to the site in 2000, and Barbara Bush was buried there in April 2018.

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