George H.W. Bush began married life with Barbara Bush in New Haven, Conn. while attending Yale University after World War II.
Four decades before leading the United States during the end of the Cold War, the 41st president developed his leadership skills as captain of the Yale baseball team.
Bush passed away less than eight months after his wife. He was 94 years old.
The Bushes first lived in an apartment on Chapel Street next to what is now The Study hotel, according to Yale Library’s Chief Research Archivist Judith Schiff.
But when the landlord found out she was expecting a child, they had to move to the corner of Whitney Avenue and Edwards Street.
"This is where they started their family," Schiff told NBC Connecticut. "George W. was born in the New Haven hospital in July 1946."
The third and final known address for H.W. Bush in New Haven is 37 Hillhouse Ave., next door to the Yale president’s home. The Bushes lived there with at least 10 other couples and their children, Schiff said.
Local
The former president played first base for the Yale baseball team. He competed in the first two College World Series and served as captain during his senior year.
At Yale Field on June 5, 1948, Babe Ruth presented Bush with the original copy of his autobiography for the Yale library. Ruth passed away two months later.
"That's an iconic photograph because here you have the most famous baseball player in the United States next to the captain of the Yale baseball team who was also a decorated war hero," Schiff said.
Current Yale baseball captain Simon Whiteman met the former president during a the opening series of his freshman year at Texas A&M.
"One of the games it was in honor of him, so he threw out the first pitch," Whiteman said.
The team also took a trip to Kennebunkport, Maine after winning a school record 34 games in 2017.
"The trip to A&M was very planned and the trip to Kennebunkport was not,” Whiteman recalled. “It was like a spur of the moment, they send us an invite of course drop everything to go."
It was the late First Lady’s last birthday.
"We sang happy birthday to her," Whiteman said. “She enjoyed, she thanked us very much, later on she wrote us a little note thanking us even though we sang off key."
New Haven attorney Mark Shiffrin worked on the 1988 Bush campaign in Connecticut and New Hampshire.
"(He) left a great legacy of accomplishment in foreign and domestic policy," Shiffrin said.
Wearing a pin from the inauguration, Shiffrin said serving under the 41st president during the transition and administration is one of the greatest honors of his life.
"He expected those who worked for him to remember this wasn’t about us," he said. “This was about America and this was about everyone who was being served and that’s a very old-fashioned value.”
George H.W. Bush is one of five Yale graduates to serve as president of the United States. He was defeated in 1992 after his one term by Bill Clinton, who went to Yale Law School.
“He set an example of dignified service to this country that will continue to inspire future generations at Yale,” Yale President Peter Salovey said in a statement.
