Family is always first, and never lose sight of how you treat others.
Those are the lessons Columbus native John Brown is remembering from working as a staff member for the George H.W. Bush administration and Barbara Bush, the former first lady who died Tuesday at age 92 at her home in Texas.
Brown, a 1977 Columbus North High School graduate, was hired by then-Vice President Bush in 1982 to work on the presidential advance staff. He had been working for then-Lt. Gov. John Mutz in Indianapolis when receiving an offer to join the Bush administration. A few years out of Ball State University, Brown jumped at the chance.
He received an email Tuesday night from the Bush family sent out to all former staff members, informing them of Barbara Bush’s death.
“When I got the staff email, it was like — everyone was expecting it, but you’re never quite ready for it,” Brown said in a Wednesday telephone interview from his home in North Carolina.
“Just for me to be a part — just a little sliver — of that whole life of the Bush family, it’s so special for my family to have experienced that,” Brown said. “It taught me that family is the most important thing.”
For more on this story, see Thursday’s Republic.
