page_title: George H. W. Bush
section_title: Marriage and college years
hierarchical_section_title: George H. W. Bush / Early life and education (1924–1948) / Marriage and college years
caption_attribution_description: English: The en:George H. W. Bush family (l-r front row - en:Neil Bush, en:Marvin Bush, en:Jeb Bush; back row - Doro Bush, en:George W. Bush, en:Barbara Bush, en:George H. W. Bush), early 1960s. Photo Credit: George Bush Presidential Library HS525 (source).
context_page_description: George Herbert Walker Bush was an American politician, diplomat, and businessman who served as the 41st president of the United States from 1989 to 1993. A leader of the Republican Party, Bush also served in the U.S. House of Representatives, as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, as Director of Central Intelligence, and as the 43rd vice president under Ronald Reagan.
  Bush was raised in Greenwich, Connecticut and attended Phillips Academy before serving in the navy during World War II. After the war, he graduated from Yale and moved to West Texas, where he established a successful oil company. After an unsuccessful run for the United States Senate, he won election to the 7th congressional district of Texas in 1966. President Richard Nixon appointed Bush to the position of Ambassador to the United Nations in 1971 and to the position of chairman of the Republican National Committee in 1973. In 1974, President Gerald Ford appointed him as the Chief of the Liaison Office to the People's Republic of China, and in 1976 Bush became the Director of Central Intelligence. Bush ran for president in 1980, but was defeated in the Republican presidential primaries by Ronald Reagan.
context_section_description: Bush met Barbara Pierce at a Christmas dance in Greenwich in December 1941, and, after a period of courtship, they became engaged in December 1943. While Bush was on leave from the navy, they married in Rye, New York, on January 6, 1945. The Bushes enjoyed a strong marriage, and Barbara would later be a popular First Lady, seen by many as "a kind of national grandmother". The marriage produced six children: George W. (b. 1946), Robin (b. 1949), Jeb (b. 1953), Neil (b. 1955), Marvin (b. 1956), and Doro (b. 1959). Their oldest daughter, Robin, died of leukemia in 1953.
  Bush enrolled at Yale College, where he took part in an accelerated program that enabled him to graduate in two and a half years rather than the usual four. He was a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity and was elected its president. He also captained the Yale baseball team and played in the first two College World Series as a left-handed first baseman. Like his father, he was a member of the Yale cheerleading squad and was initiated into the Skull and Bones secret society. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1948 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in economics and minoring in sociology.
caption: Bush, top right, stood with his wife and children, mid 1960s
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