In 1974, President Ford named George Bush as America’s representative to China. Dad recognized that China, like West Texas, represented an exciting frontier. Mother and Dad got around Beijing on bicycles. GBPLM

A few hours after receiving a telegram from the White House asking Dad to return from China to run the CIA, he cabled back, “…if this is what the President wants me to do the answer is a firm YES.” President Ford offered him an office next to the West Wing, but Director Bush felt his office should be at Agency headquarters in Langley, Virginia. GBPLM

Planning Dad’s first Presidential run in 1979 with his close friend and adviser James A. Baker III. Jimmy is a brilliant strategist, a skillful negotiator, and one of the best joke-tellers I have ever heard. I count him among the greatest political figures of the twentieth century. Bush Family Photo

Franklin Roosevelt’s Vice President complained that his job was “not worth a warm bucket of spit.” Fortunately, Ronald Reagan’s Vice President had a more positive experience. Dad and the President had lunch together every week, a tradition I continued with Vice President Dick Cheney. GBPLM/Cynthia Johnson

One of my favorite memories of Dad’s 1988 Presidential campaign was when he invited our family to join him on a trip through the Midwest around Halloween. I still smile at the image of Barbara and Jenna walking down the aisles of Air Force Two trick-or-treating the national press corps. GBPLM

When the 60-year-old Vice President went to the Old Timers baseball game at Mile High Stadium, he donned the Denver Bears uniform and slapped a single into right field. GBPLM/David Valdez

On the sunny morning of January 20, 1989, George H.W. Bush was sworn in as the forty-first President of the United States. As I watched him raise his right hand and repeat the oath, I felt a wave of immeasurable pride. GBPLM/Carol Powers

Playing horseshoes with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev at Camp David in 1990. Dad’s strategy was to develop their friendship while encouraging Gorbachev to allow the Soviet Union to unwind peacefully. On Christmas Day 1991, Gorbachev signed paperwork disbanding the Communist regime. GBPLM/David Valdez

Dad was a prolific writer of personal letters. Today there are thousands of people around the world who can reach into a desk drawer and produce a thank-you note from George Bush. GBPLM/David Valdez

I once asked my mother how she and my father have managed to stay happily married for almost seventy years. “Both of us have always been willing to go three-quarters of the way,” she said. GBPLM

President George H.W. Bush’s record includes a number of major domestic accomplish

ments. One of his proudest is the Americans with Disabilities Act. GBPLM/Joyce Naltchayan

Waiting with Laura for the First Lady to throw out the first pitch at a Texas Rangers game. Dad never had to worry about whether Mother could handle the pressure of the presidency while holding our family together. I was blessed that Laura gave me the same peace of mind. GBPLM/Carol Powers

Meeting with General Colin Powell, Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, Chief of Staff John Sununu, and National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. “This will not stand,” Dad told the press, “this aggression against Kuwait.” Those were not hollow words. GBPLM/Susan Biddle

As a combat veteran, Dad understood the agony of war firsthand and felt a special connection to the troops as Commander-in-Chief. In 1990, Mother and Dad spent Thanksgiving Day with service men and women deployed to Saudi Arabia. GBPLM/Susan Biddle

NUMBER 41

AFTER SPENDING TWO DECADES in senior government posts and watching President Reagan in the White House for eight years, George Bush understood the job of the President. And he didn’t waste time getting started. The day after the election, he announced his nomination of James A. Baker to be Secretary of State. Soon after, he named John Sununu to be White House Chief of Staff. He followed up by naming his National Security Adviser: Brent Scowcroft, a savvy former Air Force general who had also served as National Security Adviser to President Ford. (Scowcroft remains the only person to hold that critical job for more than one President.)

Dad used his transition as an opportunity to continue outlining his vision for the country. He addressed issues ranging from the economy to the Cold War with substance and command. His performance impressed journalists who had underestimated him during the vice presidency. As one TV anchor put it, it was “as if Clark Kent became Superman.”

The day after the election, Mother and Dad invited our family to a church service at St. Martin’s Episcopal in Houston. They asked me to lead the congregation in prayer. “Please guide us and guard us on our journeys—p

articularly watch over Dad and Mother,” I said. “We pray that our lives be beacons to you by remembering the words of David: ‘May that which I speak and that which I have in my heart be acceptable to thee, oh Lord.’ ” As I walked back to the pew, the exhausted and humble President-elect continued to pray.

That moment reflected my father’s quiet faith. He was a religious man, but he was not comfortable espousing his faith in the public square. I was less restrained. At a Republican presidential debate in late 1999, the moderator asked the candidates which philosopher we most identified with. I said, “Christ, because he changed my heart.” It was not a scripted answer; I just blurted out the truth. Dad called shortly after the debate, as he often did. “Good job, son,” he said. We discussed some of the key moments. Then he said, “I don’t think that answer on Jesus will hurt you too much.” It was telling that his first instinct was to think that the comment would hurt me. The reaction reflected his reluctance to do anything that might be seen as imposing religion on others. In hindsight, the moment might have been Dad’s way of reminding me of one of my favorite Bible verses for politicians (from the Book of Matthew): “Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?”

Mother and Dad generously invited Laura, our girls, and me to fly to Washington with them later that day. To my horror, I learned that Barbara and Jenna had stopped up the toilets on Air Force Two by stuffing them full of toilet paper. To this day, Mother needles the girls about whether they did it on purpose. Fortunately, no one seemed to mind. Everyone was still riding high on Dad’s victory.