For twenty-five years, Jean Becker had a front-row seat in former President George H. W. Bush’s life as his chief of staff. During Becker’s time serving the former President, she believed it was a calling that she enjoyed, not just a job serving the most important leader in the world.
Becker has written a new book titled Character Matters: And other life lessons from George H.W. Bush. Becker’s connection to the Bush family started with her career in journalism, where she would go on to be the press secretary for former First Lady Barbara Bush and editor of her book projects. Serving as former President Bush’s chief of staff for twenty-five years after he left the White House provided Becker a front-row seat into the life of the former President’s character, allowing her to interact with the people he served with during and after his presidency.
When Becker started to write and gather research for the book, she initially remembers thinking that the former President wasn’t an advice giver like his wife. However, he was someone whose actions were louder than his words. This elevated his character in Jean’s eyes. “He wasn’t a big advice giver. Unlike his wife, you hardly ever heard him say, ‘Let me give you some advice.’ President Bush led by example. His favorite quote is attributed to St. Francis Assisi: ‘Preach the gospel at all times. When necessary, use words.’”
Becker says that although Bush wasn’t big on giving advice, he used his actions to demonstrate ways of doing and being, which, for her, was the hallmark of his stellar character. It’s also why she believes so many of the people he worked with on both sides of the aisle remember the former President’s character.
The book contains stories from influential leaders, including former Vice President Dan Quayle and former President Bill Clinton. Over fifty people are included in the book, telling stories of what they witnessed and experienced while around the former President.
“I wrote his friends, his colleagues, former staff, members of the family of course, and I said, ‘Can you tell me a story? Can you write an essay that illustrates either President Bush’s character or something that you learned from him?’ And I think I ended up with 156 different contributors to this book. It’s everybody from a couple of his head of state peers, men such as John Major from Great Britain, to former Secretary of Defense Bob Gates, to Secretary James Baker, who wrote the foreword. Dan Quayle wrote the epilogue. It also included Democrats like former President Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, and the young man who mowed the yard at Walker’s Point.”
Becker wanted the book to reflect the former President’s character and be a tribute to his ability to connect well with others, especially in telling stories that reflected his desire to be inclusive to all people regardless of their gender or race.
“One of the things I learned begins with Condoleezza (Condi) Rice’s story in the very first chapter, George Herbert Walker Bush, a member of the Greatest Generation. However, he was way ahead of his time in terms of how women should be treated in the workplace. He came of age during the 1950s, when, let’s face it, it belonged to white men. Condi tells an amazing story in the very first chapter. She was a young woman who was asked to join his national security team as a Sovietologist. She was an expert on all things Soviet Union, and he singled her out and made a point to introduce her to Mikhail Gorbachev when they first met at the Malta Summit. Condi points out that the former President said it in a very loud voice; he wanted everyone on the American and the Soviet side to hear him; he said to Mikhail Gorbachev, ‘This is who I listened to, Mikhail, on anything the Soviet Union.” According to Becker, he was well ahead of his time when it came to leadership, too.
When Becker went to work for former President Bush, she thought she would be there for maybe a year to get them settled in after the 1992 election, “I didn’t know him at all at the White House. I was way too low-level to know him. I didn’t know him at all. He called me in. He said, ‘Jean, Barbara thinks you could help, maybe just be a seat filler. I need to figure out who to hire as my next chief of staff. Barbara thinks maybe you could just help keep the trains running on time.’”
And that is what Becker did for twenty-five years until Bush’s death. Becker was able to see what few Americans were given access to. She also saw the former President's faith.
“His faith was amazing. This won’t surprise you, but it was very touching. He was not afraid to die. I called the last chapter A New Beginning. And that’s the chapter where the subtitle is Faith. I called it A New Beginning because that’s truly how the Bush’s viewed dying. They had such a deep faith in God and a deep faith in heaven. Towards the end, they were both ready to go and very open about it.”
For Becker, it was not the presidential version of Bush that she admired, although she respected his office. It was the man of character and faith that she came to know and love.
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MAINA MWAURA is a freelance writer and journalist who has interviewed over 800 influential leaders, including two US Presidents, three Vice-Presidents, and a variety of others. Maina, is also the author of the Influential Mentor, How the life and legacy of Howard Hendricks Equipped and Inspired a Generation of Leaders. Maina and his family reside in the Kennesaw, Georgia area.