The former First Lady once raised more than $17 million for Morehouse.
ATLANTA – Barbara Bush’s impact on Atlanta and education was profound.
The former First Lady, who died earlier this week, was an early supporter of the Morehouse School of Medicine, helping the school in its earliest years become one of the nation’s premier medical institutions.
“She was actively involved,” said the school’s founding dean, Dr. Louis Sullivan, who counted Barbara and George H. W. Bush among his close friends.
« She really was the kind of person who focused her attention on you, whether you were a child with her reading program, or a disability person or a political opponent or a businessperson, » Sullivan said. « And she really was at ease with everyone.
« She was always very courteous, very calm, but you knew that you were in the presence of someone who’s very sure of themselves. »
When Sullivan was president of the new Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, he invited Barbara Bush to be a trustee, when her husband was serving as vice president.
« We dedicated our first medical school building in 1982, and we had Vice President Bush as the speaker for that, » Sullivan said.
Barbara Bush accepted, and for the next six years she traveled the country raising money for Morehouse School of Medicine, one of which raised more than $17 million.
« She was an active trustee, and during that six year period she missed only one meeting, » Sullivan said. « She hosted a couple of meetings of our executive committee of the board at the vice president’s home in Washington. »
Barbara and George H. W. Bush were also instrumental in establishing the chair of neuroscience, and personally attended the installation ceremony in Atlanta.
« Barbara Bush and George Bush were very interested in education of minorities, » Sullivan said. « They were active contributors to the United Negro College Fund, something I knew nothing about.
I’m sad with her passing, but at the same time I’m really inspired by having known her, by the things that she did, » Sullivan said. « She never saw herself as a person to simply enjoy privilege. She looked upon herself as a lucky individual who could really use her position to help other people, and she enjoyed that she got great meaning from that. And she really treated everyone equal, and her commitment to increasing opportunities for America’s minority populations was great in so many ways. »
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