Friend of the family
Bush reached out in time of loss.
WASHINGTON – My father, Nicholas LeRoy King, had a special relationship with George Herbert Walker Bush: adviser, confidante, biographer. Most of all, friend.
He was Bush’s press secretary and adviser in the early 1970s when the future president was the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. For more than two decades, until my father passed in
1992, they treated each other like chums.
Yes, they shared a common bond as Ivy League-educated scions of some of the country’s oldest and most prominent families.
But they both genuinely enjoyed each other’s counsel and company, staying in close touch even as their professional paths diverged. Bush would ascend to the nation’s highest office. My father remained in communications and journalism, helping foreign reporters navigate the U.N., Washington and the rest of the country while contributing to The Wall Street Journal, the National Review and the Baltimore Sun among other noteworthy publications.
Bush, the president who managed the end of the Cold War and the father of a president (George W. Bush) and a Florida governor (Jeb Bush), died Friday at
94. Nov. 10, 1987:
Dear Nick:
Thank you for your comments regarding the Houston debate. I was delighted to get your reaction. I do think the debate proved to be a plus for me, but it in no way diminishes my intention to out-hustle the other candidates. Thanks, my friend, for those encouraging words. Appreciate your strong and steadfast support. It really means a lot, as does your friendship.
Onward and upward! Warm Regards, George
Beyond their friendship, they kept close ties professionally and politically.
My father wrote the first authorized biography of Bush in 1980 when he had burst on the national scene. The Bush folks wanted to make sure they could give the national press an accurate but generally uplifting portrait of the former war hero, Texas congressman and CIA director.
My father completed the book within weeks. When it came out, Bush was still in the thick of a Republican presidential primary campaign he would eventually lose to Ronald Reagan.
In the ensuing years, my father would occasionally travel to Washington to share a birthday meal with the then-vice president.
In 1988, after winning the presidential election and before assuming office, Bush accompanied Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev for a summit in Governors Island, New York.
My father was escorting a group of foreign journalists for a photo op when Gorbachev turned to Reagan and asked him how the island got its name. The president didn’t know and turned to Bush who was also at a loss. But he spotted my father’s 6-foot, 3-inch frame in the crowd and asked him.
My father, who had luckily done a little research in advance, knew the history: The British Crown had awarded it in the 17th Century to the colonial governors of New York.
“I knew you would know why it was called that,” my father recounted Bush saying as he turned to the two world leaders. “That’s Nicholas King – he knows the answers.”
My father never boasted about his relationship with Bush. I learned of their deep friendship after finding a trove of notes and letters from Bush to my father following my dad’s death.
Among those notes were several from the presidential campaign trail in 1987 and 1988 as Bush headed to victory to become the nation’s 41st president. A prolific letter writer, Bush wrote them as responses to the encouraging missives from my father who cheered from the sidelines.
March 28, 1988
Dear Nick:
Great hearing from you, but I’m sorry to have missed seeing you in New Hampshire. Things are moving very well, but we are not going to let up at all. On to Connecticut; on to Wisconsin – and so it goes.
Barbara and I hope to see you soon. Thanks, friend, for your good letter.
George
When my father died suddenly in December 1992, the president called my mother from the White House to express condolences. He did so just weeks after his loss to Bill Clinton.
If the defeat deflated his spirits, Bush never let on. Instead, he offered my heartbroken mother tender words of love and grief that she never forgot.
Despite their long relationship and my keen interest in political journalism, I had never met Bush until early 2000 when he came to Richmond, Virginia, to raise money for his son’s presidential campaign. At the time, I was a statehouse reporter for the Virginian-Pilot, which is based in Norfolk, Virginia.
I had asked aides to then-Virginia GOP Gov. Jim Gilmore if there would be a chance to express my gratitude to Bush at the end of the event, which was held at the Jefferson Hotel.
After others had taken their photos with him, I was ushered into a side room to say hello. I was intimidated, but he lit up when I introduced myself as “Nicky’s youngest son.” Without hesitation, he asked about Joan (my mother) and my two siblings.
It was a wonderful moment. The banter with Bush was brief and light, but it was indelible for me.
He then invited me to take a photo with him like the paying fans before me. I acceded to the offer but felt uncomfortable because I was a reporter. But I forever treasure those moments chatting with a dear family friend who just happened to be my country’s 41st president.