George Herbert Walker Bush (born June 12, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States from 1989 to 1993.
He was also the 43rd Vice President of the United States, serving under Ronald Reagan from 1981 to 1989. Before his presidency, Bush was a congressman, ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.
Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to Prescott Bush and Dorothy Walker Bush. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, he joined the U.S. Navy and became a naval aviator. He served until the end of the war, then resumed his studies at Yale University.
After graduating in 1948, he moved his family to West Texas and entered the oil business. Bush married Barbara Pierce in January 1945. The couple had six children: George W., Jeb, Neil, Marvin, Robin, and Dorothy.
Bush made his first bid for public office in 1964, running for the U.S. Senate against incumbent Democrat Ralph Yarborough. He lost the race by a large margin.
Two years later, he ran for Congress and won; he would serve two terms in the House of Representatives. After winning the 1980 presidential election, Reagan tapped Bush to be his Vice President. As Vice President, Bush dealt with several crises: the Iran-Contra affair, Operation Desert Storm in Iraq, and Hurricane Andrew in Florida.
Following Reagan’s retirement in 1989, Bush ran for president and won the election by a wide margin. During his presidency, he faced numerous challenges: increasing economic inequality; partisan bickering between Republicans and Democrats in Washington D.C.; and changes in global politics brought about by the fall of the Soviet Union. In 1992, he lost his bid for re-election to Bill Clinton.
Since leaving office, Bush has remained active in public life; he founded the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library Foundation in 1997 and has written several books about his time in office.
