For 25 years, Jean Becker had a front row seat into the life of former President George H.W. Bush as his chief of staff. Her work was a calling she enjoyed, not just a job serving one of the world’s best-known figures.
From these years of experience, Becker has written Character Matters: And Other Life Lessons from George H.W. Bush.
The book features stories from 150 friends and influential leaders, everyone from former Vice President Dan Quayle to former President Bill Clinton. The stories describe what they witnessed of the former president.
Jean Becker
“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 to Nancy Pelosi, to the young man who mowed the yard at Walker’s Point.”
Becker wanted the book to reflect not just the character of the former president but also to be a tribute to his ability to connect well with others, especially in telling stories that reflected his desire to want to include women and people of color. People such as Condoleezza Rice, who also contributed to the book.
“One of the things I learned, and it begins with Condi Rice’s story in the very first chapter, … he was way ahead of his time on how women should be treated in the workplace. He came of age during the 1950s where, let’s face it, it belonged to white men.
“Condi tells in the very first chapter an amazing story. She was a young Black woman who was asked to join his national security team, as she was 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 Soviet Union.’”
According to Becker, he also was ahead of his time when it came to identifying people with leadership capacity.
Becker’s own connection to the Bush family started with her career in journalism, eventually becoming press secretary for First Lady Barbara Bush and editor for her book projects. After President Bush left the White House, Becker served as his chief of staff.
That was intended to be a transitional role, maybe a year to get things settled after the 1992 re-election loss.
“I didn’t know him at all at the White House,” she said. “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. But could you, Barbara thinks maybe that you could just help keep the trains running on time.”
She became more than a seat-filler, serving with the former president for 25 years until his death.
“His faith was amazing,” she said. “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 Bushes both viewed dying. They had such a deep faith in God and a deep faith in heaven. Toward the end, they both were ready to go, and they were very open about it.”
When Becker started to research and write the book, she initially remembers thinking the former president wasn’t an advice giver like his wife. However, he was someone whose actions spoke louder than his words. This elevated his character in Becker’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 of Assisi: ‘Preach the gospel at all times. When necessary, use words.’”
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