The family moved briefly to California, then returned in 1950 to Midland, Texas, where Bush began working in the oil industry as a salesperson for Dresser Industries, which was owned by an old family friend. Rather than stay in the Northeast, the Bushes moved to Odessa, Texas, in 1948, and Bush worked as an equipment clerk for an oil company. He was also a member of the Skull and Bones society, an exclusive secret society on campus.Īfter graduation, Bush chose to go out on his own. At Yale, he was active and involved on campus, playing baseball and eventually becoming captain of the team. He completed an undergraduate degree in economics on an accelerated program that allowed him to graduate by 1948. He was part of a surge of World War II veterans who flooded colleges and universities after the war. Bush was discharged from the Navy in September 1945 and enrolled at Yale University. They went on to have six children: George Walker (1946- ) Robin, who was born in 1949 and died in 1953 of leukemia John Ellis 'Jeb' (1953- ) Neil (1955- ) Marvin (1956- ) and Dorothy 'Doro' (1959- ). He met her in 1941 during the Christmas holidays at a country club dance in Greenwich. While still in the Navy, Bush married Barbara Pierce on January 6, 1945, in Rye, New York. He was rescued by a submarine a short time later and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for heroism under fire. On September 2, 1944, while flying a mission to bomb an enemy radio site, his plane was shot down by Japanese fire Bush bailed out over the ocean. He flew torpedo bombers in the Pacific theater and went on fifty-eight combat missions during the war. When he became a pilot in July 1943, he was the youngest pilot in the Navy. He served in the Navy during World War II from 1942 until September 1945. That same day, he enlisted in the United States Navy. He graduated on his eighteenth birthday in 1942. At Andover, Bush was captain of the baseball and soccer teams, and the senior class president. An investment banker, Prescott Bush later became a Republican senator from Connecticut, serving from 1952 until 1963.īush left home as a teenager to attend Phillips Academy Andover, an exclusive boarding school in Massachusetts. His family was wealthy but his parents raised their children to be modest, stressing the importance of public service and giving back to society. His parents, Prescott Sheldon Bush and Dorothy Walker Bush, moved the family to Greenwich, Connecticut, when George was a young boy. George Herbert Walker Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, on June 12, 1924.

Skull and bones presidents