2019 -- H 5003

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     STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2019

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H O U S E   R E S O L U T I O N

EXPRESSING CONDOLENCES ON THE PASSING OF THE HONORABLE GEORGE

HERBERT WALKER BUSH, 41ST PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

     Introduced By: Representatives Mattiello, Shekarchi, Filippi, Newberry, and
Quattrocchi

     Date Introduced: January 02, 2019

     Referred To: House read and passed

     WHEREAS, The Honorable George Herbert Walker Bush was born on June 12, 1924, in

Milton, Massachusetts, son of Prescott Sheldon Bush and Dorothy Walker Bush. He attended the

Greenwich Country Day School as a youngster, and the Phillips Academy as a teenager starting

in 1938. He was a popular student who quickly exhibited his highly regarded leadership abilities

and his well-known love of sports, serving as the President of the Senior Class and the

Community Fund-Raising Group, and as the Captain of the varsity baseball and soccer teams; and

     WHEREAS, President Bush enlisted in the United States Navy soon after the United

States entered World War II following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He soon earned his

wings as a Naval Aviator and shortly thereafter he saw combat in the Pacific Theater. In an

assigned attack on the Japanese-held Bonin Islands, he flew his plane through hellacious flak and

despite his engine catching on fire, he steadied his plane into attack formation and dropped

several bombs on his target. Tragically, his two crew mates perished while he was able to

parachute out of the plane and get rescued by a United States submarine. President Bush would

often say that he thought about his two lost crewmates every day of his life; and

     WHEREAS, While still serving in the United States Navy, President Bush married the

love of his life, Barbara Pierce Bush, in 1945. Together they were married for 73 years, the

longest presidential marriage in United States history. They had six children, President George

Walker Bush, Pauline "Robin" Robinson Bush, who tragically passed away from Leukemia at the

age of 3, John Ellis "Jeb" Bush, who served as the Governor of Florida, Neil Bush, Marvin Pierce

Bush, and Dorothy Walker "Doro" Bush Koch; and

     WHEREAS, Shortly after receiving his Honorable Discharge from the United States

Navy, President Bush attended Yale University, earning an undergraduate degree in economics in

only two-and-a-half years on an accelerated program. He was elected to serve as President of the

Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, and served as the Captain of the Yale baseball team, playing in

the first two College World Series as a first baseman; and

     WHEREAS, After graduating from Yale, President Bush and his family moved to Texas,

where he embarked on a successful and lucrative business career in the petroleum industry.

Beginning in the 1960's, President Bush began to become interested in embarking on a public

service career. He was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1966, serving

until 1971, when he lost a close race for the United States Senate. From 1971 to 1973, he served

as the Ambassador to the United Nations, as the Chairman of the Republican National Committee

from 1973 to 1974, as Head of the Liaison Office in China from 1974 to 1975, and as the Director

of Central Intelligence from 1976 to 1977. In 1980 he ran for President unsuccessfully but thanks

to his sterling record of public service and vast experience, he was chosen to serve as President

Reagan's Vice-President, a position he held for eight years; and

     WHEREAS, In 1988, President Bush ran for the presidency and secured the GOP

nomination in a hard-fought victory over Senator Robert Dole. He then went on to easily defeat

Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis to become the 41st President of the United States; and

     WHEREAS, President Bush's presidency from 1989 to 1993 has received high marks

from many historians, especially for his foreign policy achievements. Under his watch, the Cold

War ended, with the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, the dismantling of the Berlin Wall, the

"symbol of communist oppression", and the reunification of Germany. He also used United States

forces to depose Panamanian Dictator Manuel Noriega, and in the Gulf War, he forged a coalition

that used force to remove Iraqi forces from Kuwait after Saddam Hussein invaded that

independent nation in 1990; and

     WHEREAS, President Bush left the White House in 1993, and over the last 25 years

proved to be one of the most popular former presidents in the United States. He got to see his

eldest child, George W. Bush, get elected and re-elected to the Presidency. He forged close

friendships with former Presidents James Carter, William Clinton, and Barack Obama, and

together they worked in bi-partisan fashion in support of a number of charitable and worthy

causes. President George H. W. Bush was widely admired across the States for the life he lived,

one of great faith in a loving God, for his love, service and sacrifice to our great nation, for being

a wonderfully loving husband, father and friend to many, and for his self-effacing sense of

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humor. While his death is a grievous affair, we can take joy that he is now reunited with his wife

Barbara and his daughter Robin; now, therefore be it

     RESOLVED, That this House of Representatives of the State of Rhode Island and

Providence Plantations hereby expresses its deepest regrets on the passing of the Honorable

George Herbert Walker Bush, 41st President of the United States; and be it further

     RESOLVED, That the Secretary of State be and hereby is authorized and directed to

transmit a duly certified copy of this resolution to the Bush Family.

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