Bush’s life the stuff of cinema

He might have had a school named after him. Perhaps a park. But his life, and death, would have definitely become a staple of local lore for generations.

Of the teen-aged son of wealth and privilege who saw his birthright not as entitlement but responsibility, who became the youngest naval aviator in World War II, and perished when his plane was shot down in the Pacific, leaving a large and grieving family, including a teen-aged girlfriend down the Post Road in Rye, New York, who hoped to be his bride and bear his children.

But the life of George Herbert Walker Bush did not end then, or that way.

He returned home, married his best girl, had six children (enduring the worst hell a parent can imagine) moved to the anti-Greenwich (the oil fields of west Texas) built a career in business, transitioned to public service, achieved the highest office in the land, then saw his son assume the same honor.

And, when he finally left this life, it was not alone in the ocean, but surrounded by a loving family, and a grateful nation.

Rest in peace, Mr. President; may squadrons of angels lead you to your rest. You lived a life that would have made a marvelous movie.

And you could only have been portrayed by another gangly pilot from the same war. Because, for George H.W. Bush, it was indeed, a wonderful life.

Jim Vespe

Mamaroneck