"HOW WELL I CAN RECALL" Arthur Grant to GHWB, May 31, 1985, Mrs. Prescott Bush (Senior) Files, GHWB Collection, GBPL.
ONE CHRISTMAS HIS BROTHER BUCKY Author interview with William T. "Bucky" Bush.
"YOU KNOW, BUCK" Ibid.
"WOW, POP, YOU'RE" Ibid.
"OH, YEAH" Ibid.
BUSH HAD SECRETLY PRACTICED Ibid.
"THAT WAS POP" Ibid.
BEFORE GRADUATING FROM GREENWICH COUNTRY DAY Bush ranked in the top quarter of his class of thirteen boys academically. In the school's recommendation to Andover, the headmaster who had succeeded an ailing John Lynn Miner, George Denis Meadows (LSY, 33), wrote that Bush was "a boy of excellent character, conspicuously straightforward and reliable. Good all-around ability both in studies and athletics. Consistently industrious in school work." In a section entitled "Other Opinions," Meadows was terse: "Attractive personality. Will adjust socially." ("Greenwich Country Day Recommendation," undated, Bush, George, Class of 1942, Vertical Subject Files, Archives and Special Collections, Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass. Hereafter cited as Phillips Academy Files.) A PARENTAL QUESTIONNAIRE "Parents Questionnaire," undated, but most likely 1937, Phillips Academy Files.
THE DOCUMENT REFERS TO THEIR SECOND SON Ibid. GHWB had no recollection of his parents ever calling him "Walker," or of their asking others to do so. (Author interview with GHWB.) Bush did, however, remember a teacher at GCDS trying to call him "Walker" and encouraging the natural lefty to write with his right hand. Neither project, Bush said, succeeded. (ATB, 602.) "WALKER HAS ALWAYS BEEN" "Parents Questionnaire," Phillips Academy Files.
THEIR SON'S "FAMILY LIFE" Ibid.
THE QUESTIONNAIRE GOES ON Ibid.
"HE FELT THAT EVERYBODY' PSB, COHC, 4849.
"YOU HAVE GOALS" Author interview with GHWB.
FOUR: Not for Self AMBITIOUS AND SELF-CONFIDENT Richard Pieters, "Counselor's Confidential Report," June 20, 1940, Phillips Academy Files.
YOU ARE LEAVING ANDOVER Henry L. Stimson address to the graduating class, 1940, Phillips Academy Bulletin 34, no. 4 (July 1940).
IT WAS A RED, WHITE, AND BLUE THING Author interview with GHWB.
A COMMON ANDOVER JOKE HAD IT Alston Hurd Chase, Time Remembered (San Antonio, Texas, 1994), 165.
"FUESS, ROOSEVELT, AND HITLER" Ibid.
A DISTANT, GODLIKE FIGURE Author interview with GHWB.
HE WAS NICKNAMED "IRON" LSY, 39.
"BALD DOCTOR" Green, George Bush, 20.
FOUNDED IN 1778 BY SAMUEL PHILLIPS, JR. Peter W. Cookson, Jr., and Caroline Hodges Persell, Preparing for Power: America's Elite Boarding Schools (New York, 1985), 38, 43.
"THE FALL OF MAN" Ibid., 38.
ANDOVER LONG PREDATED Ibid., 43.
E. DIGBY BALTZELL, THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA SOCIOLOGIST Ibid., 42. See also NYT, August 20, 1996.
"SERVE THE SOCIOLOGICAL FUNCTION" Cookson and Persell, Preparing for Power, 42.
"YOUTH FROM EVERY QUARTER" See Phillips Academy website at www.andover.edu.
HIS "SEVEN DEADLY SINS" Frederick S. Allis, Youth from Every Quarter: A Bicentennial History of Phillips Academy (Hanover, N.H., 1979), 21.
WHILE GROTON AND OTHER SCHOOLS Isaacson and Thomas, Wise Men, 4748.
GROTON'S LATIN MOTTO TRANSLATED Ibid., 48.
"NOT FOR SELF" See "About Phillips Academy" at www.andover.edu.
"NOT WELL MEASURED IN ALL RESPECTS" Frederic Stott, "Counselor's Confidential Report," June 1938, Phillips Academy Files.
"PARENTS OF WEALTH AND SOCIAL POSITION" GHWB report card, 193839, with comments by Mr. Frederic Stott, Phillips Academy Files.
"MARKEDLY A GENTLEMAN" GHWB report card, 193940, with comments on back by "Leonard '39," Phillips Academy Files.
CHECKED INTO THE INFIRMARY FIVE TIMES Pieters, "Counselor's Confidential Report," June 20, 1940, Phillips Academy Files.
TRIED TO DO TOO MUCH Ibid.
CONTRACTED A STAPH INFECTION Author interview with GHWB. See also LSY, 41.
TO WITHDRAW HIM FROM SCHOOL GHWB report card, 193940, Phillips Academy Files.
"NOT A STRONG BOY" GHWB report card, 194041, Phillips Academy Files.
BUSH "HAS THE TYPICAL ATTITUDE" "Barrows," "Counselor's Confidential Report," May 5, 1941, Phillips Academy Files.
HE USED AN ANTI-SEMITIC EPITHET Author interview with GHWB.
THINKING OF THE MOMENT Ibid.
THE STORY OF BRUCE GELB LSY, 4041; NYT, May 23, 1988; Schweizer and Schweizer, Bushes, 64.
"HE LOVES THE SCHOOL" Pieters, "Counselor's Confidential Report," June 20, 1940, Phillips Academy Files.
IDEAL MODEL OF AN ANDOVER MAN Claude Fuess, Independent Schoolmaster (Boston, 1952), 24450.
STIMSON ADDRESSED THE COMMENCEMENT EXERCISES Ibid., 248.
"TODAY OUR WORLD" Ibid.
A LEGENDARILY DIFFICULT CLASS Allis, Youth from Every Quarter, 46365; LSY, 39.
HE ALWAYS POLLED HIGH Allis, Youth from Every Quarter, 46365.
HE RECALLED DARLING'S HISTORY 4 WARMLY Author interview with GHWB.
DARLING, SAID ONE ANDOVER ALUMNUS Allis, Youth from Every Quarter, 46365.
DARLING TAUGHT HIS STUDENTS Arthur B. Darling, Our Rising Empire, 17631803 (New Haven, Conn., 1940), 552, captures some of this thinking.
"AN EXTREMELY PLEASANT" "Yale Recommendation" for GHWB, May 27, 1941, Phillips Academy Files.
HE IS VERY MUCH OF A GENTLEMAN Ibid.
OVER CIGARS, A MAN FUESS RECALLED Fuess, Independent Schoolmaster, 250.
"IT WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE" Ibid.
FUESS WAS INTERRUPTED Ibid.
MOVED OVER THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WIRE William Manchester, The Glory and the Dream: A Narrative History of America, 19321972 (Boston, 1974), 256.
BEGAN BREAKING INTO John Toland, The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 19361945 (New York, 1970), 225.
BUSH WAS WALKING PAST Author interview with GHWB.
"MY GOD" Ibid.
"AFTER PEARL HARBOR" Ibid.
"DAD HAD SERVED" Ibid.
"RIGHTEOUS MIGHT" NYT, December 9, 1941.
THERE WERE AIR-RAID DRILLS ON CAMPUS "Andover Undergoes First Wartime Trial Blackout: Project Declared a Success by the School Raid Directors," The Phillipian, January 31, 1942.
"A DESPERATE LIFE AND DEATH STRUGGLE" "The Basis," The Phillipian, January 10, 1942.
"IF THE GOVERNMENT FAILS" Ibid.
HE WANTED TO BE A PILOT Author interview with GHWB.
A SMALL PROGRAM AT ANDOVER Allis, Youth from Every Quarter, 14.
CONSIDERED ENLISTING IN Author interview with GHWB.
YOU "COULD GET THROUGH" Ibid.
ON THE TUESDAY AFTER PEARL HARBOR "Sir Herbert Ames Talks in G.W. on the R.C.A.F.: Describes Value, Setup of Canada's Air Service," The Phillipian, December 10, 1941.
AN ANDOVER ALUMNUS WHO HAD ENLISTED IN THE RCAF "Former Andover Undergraduate Describes Life in the R.C.A.F.," The Phillipian, December 10, 1941. "It amazed me to find such a number of American lads in the R.C.A.F.," Clifford wrote. "I believe nearly 10 percent of enlistments are men from the states." (Ibid.) A TRIP TO NEW YORK FOR FLEET WEEK Author interview with GHWB.
SEEKING AN APPOINTMENT Ibid.
THE SIGHT OF BIG SHIPS Ibid.
THE PREWAR MILITARY REQUIREMENT Hyams, Flight of the Avenger, 32. See also LF, 30.
"I KNEW WHAT I WANTED TO DO" Author interview with GHWB.
HE GREW MORE SERIOUS GHWB, Record of Study, Phillips Academy Andover, Massachusetts, March 26, 1942, bk. 12, Bush Family Scrapbooks, GBPL. Hereafter cited as Bush Scrapbooks.
FIVE: That's Barbara Pierce I HAVE NEVER FELT ATB, 30.
"A STRIKINGLY BEAUTIFUL GIRL" Author interview with GHWB. For accounts of the dance, see LF, 31; LSY, 4345; Schweizer and Schweizer, Bushes, 6668; BB, 1617.
AT THE GREENWICH COUNTRY CLUB Author interview with BPB.
THE BAND WAS PLAYING GLENN MILLER LF, 31.
TURNING TO A FELLOW GUEST Ibid.
IN THE PRETTY RED-AND-GREEN HOLIDAY DRESS Ibid.
"THAT'S BARBARA PIERCE" Author interview with GHWB.
BORN IN NEW YORK CITY IN 1925 BB, 5, 13.
A TALL, KIND MAN Ibid., 7.
BEAUTIFUL BUT OCCASIONALLY DIFFICULT Ibid., 9. "My mother...often talked about 'when her ship came in' she was going to do such and such or buy such and such," Barbara wrote. "She was a lucky woman who had a husband who worshiped the ground she walked on, four loving children, and a world of friends. Her ship had come in-she just didn't know it. That is so sad." (Ibid.) ARCHLY MONITORING BARBARA'S INTAKE Ibid., 67.
DID BUSH WANT TO MEET HER? LF, 31.
"I TOLD HIM THAT WAS" Ibid.
"TOOK ME TO MEET" BB, 16.
THEY DANCED BRIEFLY Ibid.
FROM A FOX-TROT TO A WALTZ LF, 31.
THE CONVERSATION LASTED FIFTEEN MINUTES BB, 16.
ASKED BARBARA WHAT SHE WAS PLANNING Ibid.
"THE NIFTIEST GIRL" Hyams, Flight of the Avenger, 25.
"WE ALWAYS HAD TO GO" BB, 16.
"THE NICEST, CUTEST" Ibid.
"BY THE TIME I GOT UP" Ibid., 1617.
BUSH CONTRIVED TO SHOW UP Ibid., 17.