WHEREAS, President George H.W. Bush, the 41st President ofthe United States 1989-1993, and the father of George W. Bush, 43rd President ofthe United States, and Jeb Bush, 43rd Governor of Florida has gone on to his eternal reward; and
WHEREAS, the Chicago City Council has been informed of his passing by Alderman Edward M. Burke; and
WHEREAS, President George H.W. Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts and was commissioned as an ensign in the Naval Reserve at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi on June 9, 1943, three days before his 19th birthday, making him one of the youngest aviators in the history ofthe Navy; and
WHEREAS, President George H.W. Bush received additional flight training at the Glenview Naval Air Station where he qualified to land torpedo bomber planes on aircraft carriers; and
WHEREAS, in September 1943, President George H.W. Bush was assigned to Torpedo Squadron 51 (VT-51) and participated in the Battle of the Philippine Sea; and
WHEREAS, promoted to Lieutenant (junior grade) on August 1, 1944, President George H.W. Bush completed fifty-eight combat missions and earned the Distinguished Flying Cross, three Air Medals, and'the Presidential Unit Citation for gallantry; and
WHEREAS, upon completion of his war-time service, President George H.W. Bush graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Yale University in 1948 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economics; and
WHEREAS, President George H.W. Bush married Barbara Pierce in Rye, New York on January 6, 1945 and fathered six children; and
WHEREAS, after relocating his family to Texas to begin his business career in the oil industry, President George H.W. Bush entered politics in February 1963 and won election as chairman of the Harris County Republican Party; and
WHEREAS, in 1966, President George H.W. Bush won election to the House of Representatives froni the 7th District of Texas and was appointed to the House Ways and Means Committee where he stood in opposition to the draft and supported birth control; and
WHEREAS, following a disappointing loss in his bid for a U.S. Senate seat in 1970, President George H.W. Bush was appointed United States Ambassador to the United Nations by President Richard Nixon; and
WHEREAS, through the busy years of the 1970s George H.W. Bush, recognized as a leading authority on international relations, served his party and the nation as Chairman of the Republican National Committee; as head of the U.S. Liaison Office in China and as Director of
the Central Intelligence Agency (C.I. A.) in 1976-1977 and briefly as professor of Administrative Science at Rice University during the administration of President Jimmy Carter; and
WHEREAS, in 1979-1980, George H.W. Bush made a determined, but ultimately failed effort to secure the Republican nomination for president, despite running a strong centrist campaign; and
WHEREAS, recognizing his prominent stature in national politics, incoming candidate Ronald Reagan named George H.W. Bush to be his vice-presidential nominee; and
WHEREAS, as vice president, George H.W. Bush distinguished himself as an internationalist cultivating important ties between the administration and leaders abroad, and as a social moderate challenging the tenets of an increasingly conservative Republican Party; and
WHEREAS, nearing the end of the Ronald Reagan administration, George H.W. Bush entered the Republican primaries in October 1987, overcoming challenges from Senator Robert Dole, Congressman Jack Kemp and others to secure his party's nomination for president in 1988; and
WHEREAS, in the national election, President George H.W. Bush swept to victory over Governor Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts, with a 426-111 margin of victory in the Electoral College; and
WHEREAS, facing many challenges at home and abroad at the onset of his administration, President George H.W. Bush led the initiative to restore the failing savings and loan industry to robust fiscal health and secured passage of the landmark Americans With Disabilities (ACA) civil rights legislation in July 1990 the Civil Rights Act of 1991; and
WHEREAS, during the Bush Administration the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the fall of communism ended nearly five decades of global cold war; and
WHEREAS, in 1990 Time Magazine named President George H.W. Bush "Man of the Year;" and
WHEREAS, President George H.W. Bush, as an active environmentalist, championed and strengthened Clean Air Act amendments by raising the bar on smog and acid rain causing emissions, and with broad international support, turned back the brutal invasion of Kuwait by Saddam Hussein's Iraqi army in "Operation Desert Storm" during the Gulf War; and
WHEREAS, following the 1992 election, President George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush retired to the West Oaks community near Houston; and
WHEREAS, in retirement President George H.W. Bush continued his distinguished service to the nation, participating in many worthy diplomatic and domestic initiatives, and on the occasion of his 90th birthday, he fulfilled a long-standing promise to sky-dive out of helicopter and; now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that we, the Mayor and the members of the Chicago City Council assembled this twelfth day of December 2018 do hereby express our sorrow and extend deepest condolences to the Bush family on the passing of President George H.W. Bush, a steadfast humanitarian respected world leader.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that a suitable copy ofthis resolution be presented to the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library Center in College Station, Texas.
