George HW Bush was the 41st President of the United States from 1989 to 1993. Former US president George H.W. Bush, who helped steer America through the end of the cold war, has died at age 94, his family announced on Saturday.
“Jeb, Neil, Marvin, Doro and I are saddened to announce that after 94 remarkable years, our dear Dad has died,” his son, former president George W. Bush, said in a statement released on Twitter by a family spokesman. “George H.W. Bush was a man of the highest character and the best dad a son or daughter could ask for.”
Bush lived longer than any of his predecessors. His death came just months after the death in April of his wife Barbara Bush – his “most beloved woman in the world” – to whom he was married for 73 years.
He is survived by his five children and 17 grandchildren.
The US leader was a foreign policy stalwart who declared a “new world order” in 1990. He saw his popularity swell with the US success in the Gulf War in 1991, only to watch it evaporate in a brief but deep recession. The Republican was defeated in his bid for a second term by Democrat Bill Clinton.
Bush, who fought in the second world war, was a Texas congressman, CIA director and Ronald Reagan’s vice-president.
Only one other US president, John Adams, had a son who also became president.