George H W Bush, 41st president of the United States passed on today at the age of 94. As we continue to celebrate the life and legacy of this great American President, we have put together some never before seen photos in a 'Story in Picture' collection.
See photos after the jump!!!
George Bush in the Capitol on Jan. 3rd, 1985, after swearing in ceremony as Vice President of the United States.
Mr Bush spent 4-years in the Oval Office from 1989 to 1993. He led a successful military campaign against dictators in Iran and Panama, but was denied a second term after support for his presidency collapsed under the weight of an economic downturn.
When Mr Bush was sworn in as president on Jan. 20th, 1989, he was so eager that he said "I" before Chief Justice William H Rehnquist could ask him if he did, indeed so solemnly swear.
The Bush family pose for a portrait in Kennebunkport, Me in 1988. Mr Bush waving is seated next to his mother, Dorothy.
"I will never do anything to embarrass you politically" Mr Bush wrote to Ronald Reagan after the Reagan-Bush ticket was elected in Nov.of 1980. Mr Bush happily accepted his first assignment: leading a task force to reduce federal regulations.
6-months before Mr Bush graduated from high school, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor..."I could hardly wait to get out of school and enlist" he wrote later. At 18, he did enlist, as a seaman second class in the Navy's flight training program. Soon he was flying combat mission in the pacific.
Mr Bush returned from war to marry Barbara Pierce, whom he had met at a dance before going oversea. Her father, Marvin Pierce was the publisher of Redbook and McCall's Magazines. The couple married on Jan. 6th, 1945.
After the war, Mr Bush graduated from Yale, where he was captain of the baseball team and a member of the Skull and Bones club.
Mr Bush was the first president since John Adams to become the father of a president, George W Bush pictured here with his parent in 1955. Another son, Jeb served two terms as governor of Florida. The Bushes had two other sons, Neil and Marvin and a daughter, Dorothy.
Mr Bush served as ambassador to the United Nations under President Richard M Nixon, winning confirmation in February 1971. His service began with an embittering defeat in a vote on whether to seat China. The United States wanted both Taiwan and China to be represented, but the General Assembly voted to expel Taiwan to make way for China.
Mr Bush and Prime minister Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan at the White House in 1989. A skilled bureaucratic and diplomatic player, Mr Bush helped end the Cold War and the threat of nuclear engagement with a nuanced handling of the collapsed of the Soviet Union and the liberation of Eastern Europe.
In December 1989 off the coast of Malta, Mr Bush and President Mikhail S Gobarchev of the Soviet Union agreed to conclude treaties on long range nuclear weapons and conventional arms by the end of the next year. They agreed, Mr Gobarchev said "The characteristics of the Cold War should be abandoned"
The last full year of Bush's tenure produced what he considered one of his most damaging moments. On a trip to fa east, during a state dinner held by Kiichi Miyazawa, the Japanese Prime minister, Mr Bush turned white, vomited on his host and fainted. Mr Miyazawa cradled Bushes head as the president crumbled to the floor, an image that dominated the news for days.
Bush with Defense Secretary, Dick Cheney; Gen Collin Powell, Chairman of Joint Chief of Staff; Vice President Dan Quayle; and the White House Chief of Staff.
Bush greeted American troops in Saudi Arabia weeks before the start of the Persian Gulf war of 1991. Through personal force and persuasion, he assembled a global coalition to turn back Saddam Hussein after Iraq troops had overrun Kuwait. War against Iraq resurfaced during his son's presidency.
Bush holding Patty Nunez, 5, at a Florida shelter for people who lost their home to Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Years after leaving office he helped raise money for the victims of the tsunami that ravaged Asia in 2004 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Bush lost his bid for a second term in 1992 to Gov. Bill Clinton of Arkansas. His defeat came in mo small part because of Ross Perot, center, an independent candidate whose 19 percent of the vote helped deny both Bush and Clinton a majority.
Mr Bush and Mr Clinton in 2005. They became friends after both were out of office
At 72, George Bush jumped from a plane at the Army's Yuma Proving Grounds in Arizona in 1997. He celebrated several milestone birthday, including his 90th with parachute jumps.
George Bush with his newly inaugurated son, George W Bush, as he sat at his desk in the Oval Office for the first time. Almost 4-years later, he watched his son accomplish what he could not: winning a second term in the White House.
George Bush was never a man comfortable with introspection or self examination. Nonetheless, a diary entry he made on the last day of 1989---at the end of the first year of his presidency, seems even today, an apt summation of his ambition and talents. "I am certainly not seen as visionary"
What a man! What a jolly good man! US-41, thank you for your service. You were a giant of a man and your legacy lives one. Journey well sir and rest in POWER!
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