Bush was "the inveterate letter writer," wrote presidential historian Jon Meacham in his Bush biography, "Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush." President Donald J. Trump has proclaimed today, Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2018, as a National Day of Mourning in remembrance of former President George H.W. Dignitaries had come forward on Monday, too, to honor the Texan whose service to his country extended three quarters of a century, from World War II through his final years as an advocate for volunteerism and relief for people displaced by natural disaster. A ceremony at Washington National Cathedral, the nexus of state funerals, will cap three days of remembrance by dignitaries and ordinary citizens as they honored the Republican president who oversaw the post-Cold War transition and led a successful Gulf War, only to lose re-election in a generational shift to Democrat Bill Clinton in 1992.
The casket for former U.S. President George H. W. Bush arrives at the National Cathedral.