Mr. Bush entered the White House with one of the most impressive résumés of any president. Here’s a look at some milestones in his life.
1924
George Herbert Walker Bush is born on June 12 in Milton, Mass. The son of a United States senator, he grows up amid wealth in Greenwich, Conn., sheltered from the Depression.
[ George H. W. Bush, a one-term president who steered the nation through a tumultuous period in world affairs, dies at 94.]
1942
Mr. Bush joins the Navy on his 18th birthday during World War II and becomes a torpedo bomber pilot. His plane is shot down by the Japanese in 1944, and he is rescued at sea.
1945
On Jan. 6, after he returns from the war, he marries Barbara Pierce, whom he had met at a dance. They have six children and become the longest-married couple in presidential history.
1948
Captain of the baseball team, a member of the exclusive Skull and Bones club, Mr. Bush graduates from Yale, drives to Texas and lands a job at the oil company Dresser Industries.
1951
He forms an oil exploration business with a Texas entrepreneur. Two years later, they merge with another company to form Zapata Petroleum. Before long he makes his first million.
1963
Mr. Bush successfully runs for chairman of the Harris County Republican committee. His victory catches the eye of Texas Republican leaders.
1964
At the urging of President Richard M. Nixon, he runs for the Senate, challenging the Democratic incumbent, Ralph Yarborough. Mr. Bush loses with 43 percent of the vote.
1966
Mr. Bush is elected, handily, to the House of Representatives from a rich Houston district.
