The death of President George H.W. Bush brought a week of tributes and memorials that started and ended here, in Texas. That’s fitting for a leader who had an outsized impact on Texas politics during the second half of the 20th century.
Originally from Connecticut, Bush moved to Midland, Texas in the 1950’s to begin an oil drilling business. He then moved his family and company to Houston, where he became involved with the Republican party during a time of complete Democratic Party control in Texas politics.
In 1966, Bush made history by becoming one of two Texas Republicans elected to the U.S. House after losing the race for senate two years earlier by 12 percentage points.
President Nixon appointed Bush as Ambassador to the United Nations in 1971 and he went on to head the Republican National Committee and became the Director of the CIA in 1976.
Bush was elected President in 1988. By then, Republicans were on their way to dominance in the state.
“George Bush played an important role because he was popular when Republicans were not popular in the state,” said Jeremi Suri, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin. Suri spoke about the 41st President’s place in history during an interview on Sunday’s State of Texas politics program. Texas Republicans still credit him for putting the party on the map.
“He was trying to build the Republican party. He was just a great person because really in many counties, they didn’t even have a Republican party and he was just blazing a trail,” Former Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson said. “That eventually became a trail that his son, George W. then really turned over the governorship, only the second Republican to be elected governor in Texas in the modern times.”
Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) was a junior member of Congress when Bush was President.
“I consider George Bush to be one of the most honorable men I’ve ever met,” he said. “One of the most honorable men in politics anyone could possibly encounter.”
In the years after his presidency, Bush and his wife Barbara spent most of their time at home in West Houston and spent their summers in Maine.
As he got older, Bush spent his birthdays skydiving. Though he skydived for his 80th, 85th and 90th birthdays, it wasn’t new to him. He fought in World War II and was shot down while fighting Japanese forces in the Pacific.
“As the funeral reflected, it really defined his life – a tradition of public service but also a sense that he had been spared in what was a near death experience,” Suri said. “He felt a desire and an obligation to serve the public.”
(Information from KXAN.com)
