By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Former President of the United States of America (USA), Mr George Bush, has died less than eight months after that of his wife of 73 years, Mrs Barbara Bush. He died on Friday night at his home in Houston at the age of 94.
The deceased, who was America’s 41st President, occupied the White House from 1989 to 1993, capping a career of more than 40 years in public service.
He was denied a second term at the Oval Office after support for his presidency collapsed under the weight of an economic downturn and his seeming inattention to domestic affairs.
Mr Bush had a form of Parkinson’s disease that forced him to use a wheelchair or motorized scooter in recent years, and he had been in and out of hospitals during that time as his health declined.
In April, a day after attending Mrs Bush’s funeral, he was treated for an infection that had spread to his blood. In 2013, he was in dire enough shape with bronchitis that his son, former President George W Bush, solicited ideas for a eulogy.
Mr Bush was a skilled bureaucratic and diplomatic player who, as president, helped end four decades of Cold War and the threat of nuclear engagement with a nuanced handling of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the liberation of Eastern Europe.
He was a decorated Navy pilot who was shot down in the Pacific in 1944, he was the last of the World War II generation to occupy the Oval Office.
