Some of the most important moments in President George H.W. Bush’s early life took place in Connecticut.
He grew up here, met his wife Barbara and started a family as he went to school at Yale.
Over the years he returned, including as he ran for president.
“He was just very warm and he was just very kind,” said Lisa Kaplan of Lyme.
Kaplan remembers the moment she says was captured in a picture from 1988: her standing next to then Vice President George H.W. Bush.
“He just jumped right in the middle of us and said, ‘Let’s take a picture,’” said Kaplan.
Kaplan had been working for Bush’s campaign in Connecticut during his second run for president.
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She met him twice including at this rally in West Hartford.
“It was really neat because he had such a joy. He was so genuinely grateful for our work and what we were doing to support the campaign. It was such a great, unscripted moment,” said Kaplan.
For Bush, it had been a return to a state where he has a long history.
While born in Massachusetts, Bush grew up in Greenwich and attended Yale University after serving in the U.S. Navy.
At Yale, he was captain of the baseball team.
It was in New Haven, George and Barbara lived and started a family.
"As Barbara said in her memoir when she told them that she was expecting and would be bringing a baby home to that apartment eventually she found out that although they like dogs, they don't like babies so they were evicted," Judith Schiff, Yale University Library Chief Research Archivist told NBC Connecticut back in April.
After graduating from Yale in 1948, Bush and his family moved to Texas.
But he never forgot about Connecticut and the people here.
As for Lisa Kaplan, over the years her political leanings have changed, but not her admiration for the 41st president.
“He served us in so many ways. And I think it’s a really proud example of what an American could and should be,” said Kaplan.
Kaplan says she thought about heading to Washington D.C. after Bush won the presidency in 1988.
But her own plans had changed after meeting her future husband during the campaign.
