Bill Text: IL HR1350 | 2017-2018 | 100th General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Mourns the death of President George H.W. Bush.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Passed) 2019-01-07 - Resolution Adopted [HR1350 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2017-HR1350-Introduced.html

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HOUSE RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, President George H.W. Bush was born to an
upper-class New England family in Milton, Massachusetts on June
12, 1924, in an age when airplanes had four wings and money was
made up of gold coins; and
WHEREAS, In June of 1942, immediately after graduating from
an elite prep school, the teenaged President Bush enlisted in
the U.S. Navy and set off to fight in World War II; choosing
the dangerous service of naval aviation, he learned to take off
from, and land on, aircraft carriers; and
WHEREAS, This led to one of President Bush's closest
connections with the State of Illinois; as German and Japanese
submarines were active in all of America's coastal salt waters,
the U.S. Navy devised a way to train its new air groups on
fresh water; a large Chicago-based steamboat was stripped of
its upper works and turned into a coal-burning flattop, the
U.S.S. Sable; from the Glenview Naval Air Station and the Lake
Michigan-based Sable, hundreds of young American men,
including Bush, learned the difficult and dangerous art of
naval aviation; and
WHEREAS, After earning his wings, President Bush became one
of the two youngest aviators in the U.S. Navy and was assigned

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to the U.S.S. San Jacinto's Torpedo Squadron 51 for combat
service in the Pacific; and
WHEREAS, President Bush piloted planes assigned to the
dangerous duties of spotting and observation of enemy forces
and emplacements, as well as releasing bombs; on September 2,
1944, while attacking the Japanese-held island of Chichijima in
the Bonin Archipelago, his plane was hit and rendered
unflyable; he was forced to bail out with an inflatable raft
and floated in unfriendly waters until rescued by an American
submarine; and
WHEREAS, After this incident, President Bush returned to
combat duties in Western Pacific and Philippine waters until
the squadron was rotated out in late 1944; he had flown 58
combat missions and earned the Distinguished Flying Cross; and
WHEREAS, President Bush was able to spend the final months
of the war stateside; in January of 1945, he married his
sweetheart, Barbara Pierce; with the end of the war in August
of 1945, he was discharged from the services and allowed to
resume his education; he chose Yale College as his place of
higher study; and
WHEREAS, President Bush studied economics at Yale; the
dormitory life of younger students was not for him as he was

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already a married man; their first son, George W. Bush, was
born in New Haven in July of 1946; the future 43rd President's
father graduated from Yale as a member of the Class of l948;
and
WHEREAS, As President Bush and Barbara wished to make their
own way in the world, in 1948 they left their New England
family homes, got into a Studebaker car with their young son,
and drove across America to the booming oil fields of the
Permian Basin in far west Texas; and
WHEREAS, As postwar America became a "car culture", oil
industry leaders like President Bush and Barbara were at the
forefront; developing technology encouraged the Bush family to
move from Midland, Texas to Houston, where the President and
his friends organized one of the first firms to successfully
drill for crude oil in the open waters of the Gulf of Mexico;
and
WHEREAS, As a respected leader of the Houston business
community, President Bush was elected to the United States
House of Representatives in 1966, becoming one of the first
Republicans elected to Congress from Texas in the 20th century;
and
WHEREAS, After leaving Congress in 1971, President Bush

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served in a succession of high-level posts in the Nixon and
Ford Administrations, including U.S. Ambassador to the United
Nations (1971-1973), Chairman of the Republican National
Committee (1973-1974), Chief of Liaison to the People's
Republican of China (1974-1975), and Director of the Central
Intelligence Agency (1976-1977); and
WHEREAS, As one of the most experienced candidates for
national office in U.S. history, President Bush was chosen in
August of 1980 by Ronald Reagan, a man who became Bush's mentor
and close friend, to be his vice presidential candidate; the
Reagan-Bush ticket was elected in a landslide in November of
1980, with Illinois voting for Reagan and Bush; and
WHEREAS, After serving as Vice President for eight years,
President Bush sought the presidency in his own right; he was
nominated by the Republicans and elected by his fellow citizens
in November of 1988; and
WHEREAS, This victory included the votes of 2.3 million
Illinoisans, who enabled the Republican candidate to carry the
Land of Lincoln and win Illinois' 24 electoral votes; and
WHEREAS, Almost from the moment he stepped into the Oval
Office, President Bush was faced with intense challenges; the
Berlin Wall fell in November of 1989, destroying the paradigms

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that had governed U.S. foreign policy since World War II and
creating a new world; and
WHEREAS, Although this was a triumphant world for the
United States, it was also one of increasing and frightening
challenges; the collapse of bipolarity liberated a lot of
national leaders and insurgent leaders, including terrorists,
to do bad things; and
WHEREAS, In August of 1990, the dictator of Iraq, Saddam
Hussein, invaded and annexed the independent country of Kuwait;
and
WHEREAS, Utilizing the experiences he had gained from his
time in combat through his time in senior U.S. diplomacy and
summitry, President Bush led an international coalition that
defeated Hussein's forces, threw them out of Kuwait, and
restored peace to the Persian Gulf region; and
WHEREAS, The Gulf War Coalition, which was active in
1990-91, comprised almost 1.0 million active service members,
of whom 700,000 were U.S. troops; despite the size of this
immense mobilization, only 149 American service members were
killed in combat; and
WHEREAS, Although the leadership of President Bush will

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forever be associated with the challenges of foreign policy and
his leadership in the Gulf War, the 41st president was also
active with many challenges of U.S. domestic policy; and
WHEREAS, One of the features of the President Bush
Administration was sustained and cordial relations between
both parties in Congress, which allowed many new laws to be
passed, including measures that helped many broad segments of
the American people; and
WHEREAS, President Bush was able to sign many significant
measures into federal law, including the Americans With
Disabilities Act of 1990; and
WHEREAS, After leaving office in 1993, President George and
First Lady Barbara Bush returned to private life in Texas; the
couple enjoyed going to baseball games played by their favorite
team, the Houston Astros, and the company of their children,
grandchildren, and great-grandchildren; and
WHEREAS, President Bush enjoyed relatively good health
until the final years of his life and marked his 80th and 90th
birthdays with parachute jumps from a plane, a feat which had
saved his life in the U.S. Navy more than half a century
earlier; and

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WHEREAS, In an honor shared by only one other American
President, John Adams, President Bush was able to see one of
his children, eldest son George W. Bush, elected the 43rd
President of the United States in November of 2000; and
WHEREAS, In retirement, President Bush is known to have
been a close advisor and counsel to President George W. Bush in
the immense challenges faced by the new president, including
the events of 9/11; and
WHEREAS, Continuing his pattern of strongly partisan but
never embittered relations with Democrats, President Bush
developed close and friendly relations with fellow Presidents
Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama; and
WHEREAS, President Bush's final year of life was saddened
by the death of his beloved wife, Barbara; he assured the
nation that his wife had been sustained, and he continued to be
sustained, by their active Christian faith and belief that
their family would be reunited; and
WHEREAS, In the eyes of many observers, this faith was a
key to President Bush's entire life, including his repeated
assertion that a healthy America would be made up not of a
powerful leader and passive residents, but rather of "a
thousand points of light" made up of active citizens practicing

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selfless leadership in their communities; and
WHEREAS, In the final hours of November, late Friday,
November 30, 2018, Illinois and the United States of America
were saddened to learn that President Bush had died in his
Texas home at the age of 94; and
WHEREAS, The life of President Bush would be remembered in
state ceremonies in Washington, D.C., and he would be laid to
rest in the place set aside by the American people for the
commemoration of his life and leadership, the George H. W. Bush
Presidential Library and Museum in College Station, Texas;
therefore, be it
RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
HUNDREDTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we
solemnly remember, commemorate, and express gratitude for the
life of George H. W. Bush, World War II warrior and 41st
President of the United States; and be it further
RESOLVED, That we pay particular attention to the fact that
President Bush's life reaffirms that we are all Americans; a
true leader is highly partisan with his friends, highly civil
with his adversaries, and remembers that light has many points;
and be it further

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RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be
presented to the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library and
Museum and to George H.W. Bush's son, the 43rd President,
George W. Bush.