These rancorous political times arouse a certain wistfulness for a president who sought a “kinder and gentler nation.” 

George H. W. Bush drew mixed reviews for his four years in the nation’s highest office – positive for his handling of foreign policy, less approving of domestic affairs – but also wide admiration for his projection of empathy, humility, and simple decency. Those qualities were further stamped into a graceful, 26-year post-presidency. 

Jean Becker, Bush’s longtime chief of staff and one of the people who knew him best, offers a behind-the-scenes look at his life as Former Leader of the Free World in a discussion of her new book The Man I Knew. She was with Bush as he sprang back from his devastating election loss to Bill Clinton in 1992, intent on making a post-White House difference. Declining to vilify his political adversaries, he became good friends with Clinton and famously partnered with him on disaster relief. He reprised his World War II parachute jumps on his 72^nd, 80^th, 85^th, and 90^th birthdays. He saw two sons become governors, one going on to become president. 

Becker served as deputy press secretary for Bush’s wife Barbara while they were in the White House and then as the former president’s chief of staff from 1993 until his death in 2018. She has spoken twice previously for the Library, most recently about Barbara Bush after the release of her 2020 book Pearls of Wisdom: Little Pieces of Advice (That Go a Long Way), ghostwritten by Becker.