Columbus native John Brown had just awakened early Saturday when he saw an email notifying him that his former boss and long-time mentor and friend President George H.W. Bush had died.
Brown, a 1977 Columbus North High School graduate, was hired by then-Vice President Bush in 1982 to work on the presidential advance staff, a job that took Brown and Bush on journeys together all over the world. Brown was only just a few years out of Ball State University when the offer was made and he jumped at the chance to work for Bush.
As Brown watched Bush’s state funeral at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C. on television Wednesday morning from his office in North Carolina, he remembered Bush as a man who never wanted the pomp and circumstance of high political office.
Instead, Bush enjoyed the chance to meet Americans and talk with them about their lives and how he could help them, Brown said.
Bush was a person who at one time held the most powerful position in the world, and at the end of the day, he literally was like, ‘this is about you and me,’ ” Brown said. “That’s what made him so special.”
For more on this story, see Thursday’s Republic.
