Prescott S. Bush

     Like so much else in the Bush family story, public perceptions are not always accurate and appearances do not tell the complete story. For example, while Prescott Bush and his wife Dorothy appeared to be products of the East Coast Establishment, Prescott was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio where his father Samuel ("Great-grandfather Bush," 1863-1948) was the President of Buckeye Steel Casting, a company that manufactured parts for railroad cars.
     Perhaps because Samuel's father, James Smith Bush, led an unconventional life, being a lawyer before becoming a clergyman after his first wife died, Samuel also often took a different path from what might have been expected. For example, rather than building his large limestone mansion on the proper East side of Columbus he built it in a new northwest suburb originally called Arlington and now called Marble Cliff. Perhaps he was attracted by the larger lot for his impressive gardens, or by the nine hole golf course virtually across the road And when the
Columbus establishment built an eighteen hole golf course on the east side (now the Columbus Country Club), he instead helped form the Scioto Golf Club (where later Jack Nicklaus learned to play golf) a few blocks north of his home. [Note that Samuel's mansion on Roxbury Road was for many years part of the St. Raphael's Home for the Aged across from Our Lady of Victory Church, which now is part of a Condo project called Prescott Place. Prescott likely learned to play golf on the short rough course called "Aladdin" across the road.]
     And while Samuel was a founding member of the National Association of Manufacturers, and the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, he was also a staunch Democrat who was a key supporter of unemployment compensation, led relief efforts for the victims of the devastating 1913 flood (which is the subject of a wonderful story by another Columbus native, James Thurber), and served under Barnard Baruch on the War Industries Board during WWI. Samuel was also was an excellent athlete, playing golf, tennis, and baseball.
     Although there were several schools to choose from in Columbus, Samuel sent Prescott to Douglas Elementary School where his classmates were of many nationalities... Irish, Italian, German, and African-American. And as Prescott later noted, “I always felt that gave me a sense of balance about ethnic problems that I found useful in later life, particularly in political life.”
     But after the 8th grade Samuel sent Prescott to St. George's, a small Episcopalian boarding school in Rhode Island, and then on to Yale, his father's college (Samuel graduated from Stevens, an engineering school in New Jersey). At Yale Prescott not only excelled academically but also was a star athlete in golf, hockey, and baseball, was tapped to join the Skull and Bones secret society, and was a member of the Wiffenpoofs singing group and was voted "First Bass" on the Yale Glee Club's all-time quartet. (Interestingly, this remarkable musical ability was apparently passed on to all of Prescott’s children except Father Bush... and Father Bush alone did not join his siblings in the family singing with his father. However, it might explain why Father Bush invited the Oak Ridge Boys not only to sing at many of his campaign appearances, but also to visit Kennebunkport each summer with their wives... and why during Son Bush and Laura’s afternoon wedding reception he invited a barbershop quartet that was performing in an adjoining room to sing at the reception... and to the delight of all.)
     Prescott was one of two Yale seniors to volunteer for the Connecticut National Guard in the summer before his senior year, and after graduating from Yale he promptly enlisted, was commissioned a Captain, and served in the 158th Artillery Battalion. His regiment landed in France in June, 1918 and he was at the front in the trenches for 10 weeks before armistice was signed on November 11, 1918. However, he stayed most of 1919 with the occupation forces in Germany.
     When he returned in 1919 he wasn't sure he could be a student again after his military experiences and so he abandoned his plans to attend law school and instead started working for a hardware distributor located in St. Louis where he met Dorothy Walker (1901-1992) in the autumn of 1919. Dorothy, called “Dotty,” was the daughter of George Herbert Walker, a rough and tough very successful businessman who's Scottish Catholic family had disavowed him when he married a Protestant lady. George Herbert Walker served as president of the
U.S. Golf Association (as did Prescott some years later), established the Walker Cup for golf, had an estate on Walker's Point in Kennebunkport, Maine, a mansion on Long Island, an apartment at One Sutton’s Place in Manhattan, and a 10,000 acre preserve called Duncannon in South Carolina, all staffed with an array of servants.
     Although Dotty wanted to attend Vassar, her father believed education made women "argumentative" and thus her schooling ended with Miss Porters Finishing School in Connecticut and a 6 month trip through Europe. She was a wonderful athlete who placed second in a national tennis tournament in 1918, and would challenged visitors to swim a mile in Atlantic off Walker's Point. By all accounts she was an indomitable woman who reputedly played a softball game hours before giving birth to their first son, Prescott, and who insisted on finishing a tennis
game after breaking her wrist in a fall. Daughter-in law Barbara Bush called her the most remarkable woman she ever knew.
     Prescott and Dotty were married in Kennebunkport in August 1921 with a social register guest list, and Dotty’s father built the newlyweds their own small house on Walker's Point where Dotty spent every summer of her life. Prescott’s mother had died suddenly in an accident in September, 1920 and so the newlyweds lived in Columbus for about a year to be near his father and help him with a substantial investment he had made in a small rubber manufacturing company. When that company failed (as it turned out as the result of an embezzlement) and was
sold, he and Dotty moved to Milton, Massachusetts to work for the new owners. Prescott Jr. Was born there in 1922, and George Herbert Walker Bush followed in 1924. Eventually there were three other children, Nancy Bush Ellis (1926), Jonathan Bush (1931), and William ("Bucky") Bush (1938).
     The railroad baron E. H. Harriman had set up an investment firm for his son Averell and recruited the successful (and ruthless) businessman, George Herbert Walker from St. Louis, to run it. Prescott was 31 years old, working for US Rubber in New York City, and commuting an hour and 15 minutes each way from Greenwich, Connecticut when his father-in-law, asked Prescott to join the Brown Brothers Harriman Investment firm in the City as well. “Movie star handsome, tall, and athletic, he ]Prescott] was a rainmaker, earning his money primarily by charming and snaring potential clients.” And influenced by his Republican in-laws and clients, Prescott finally broke his ties to the Democratic party and became a Republican.
     His father-in-law left the Brown Brothers firm in the late 1920's after being involved in some “dangerous dealings,” cashed out some stocks and sold others short, and thus was one of the rare investors who became far richer during the Depression (Joseph P. Kennedy was another.) As businesses crumbled (the Dow Jones was at $89 in January, 1932 and sank to $48 in June of that year) and Prescott and his partners struggled to keep the firm afloat, Harriman put up additional capital to keep the firm solvent... and eventually it became a gold mine for them.
     One of Prescott’s early big successes was helping William Paley buy the Columbia Broadcasting System. When Paley (who attended Ohio State University in Columbus) could only come up with half of the $5 million price, Prescott pushed Harriman to put up the rest. Prescott served on the CBS Board, and over the years attracted other business to the investment firm, and served on the boards of other companies including Dresser Industries (now part of Haliburton), Prudential Insurance, and Pan Am. In 1942 it was disclosed that Prescott served on the board of Union Bank which held $3 million for a Nazi financier. The bank was closed under the “Trading with the Enemy Act” and Prescott opened all documents and records and informed the government regulators that the account had been opened in the late 1930's as an “unpaid courtesy” for a client (likely a friend of Charles Lindbergh). Given his good reputation and work raising millions for the USO and National
War Fund, the Union Bank problem was never raised again in the press until 1994.
     After making money in investment banking, Prescott was interested in running for Congress in 1946, but his partners said they needed him more than the government needed him... in other words "a gentleman doesn't leave high business for the U.S. House." But when a Senate seat opened in 1950 he jumped in... and lost by only 1,100 votes after last-minute accusations of anti-Catholic sentiments and support for the Birth Control League... which he could truthfully deny although he had been a founding member and long-time supporter of Planned Parenthood. These attacks were effective and personally hurt him and his family, and they all learned that to play you first have to win... and to never support Planned Parenthood (indeed this part of Prescott’s record, like the Union Bank, seems to have largely disappeared.)
     He ran again in 1952, but swore off politics after losing the party's nomination. But then when the other Connecticut Senator died, the Republican party begged him to try for a third time in 1954, and with Eisenhower at the top of the ticket, this time he was successful. As a Senator he was almost too liberal for his Republican leaders, speaking out against Joe McCarthy, co-sponsoring the Peace Corps, and supporting civil rights, a higher minimum wage, the federal roadway system, and even higher taxes to pay for education, defense and science.
Many of these were not popular stands and some Republicans tried to defeat him when he ran for re-election in 1956. And one reason Prescott decided not to run for re-election again in 1962 was that he had lost the support of a significant part of his own Connecticut State Republican Party.
     At six feet four inches (2 inches taller than his son G.H.W. Bush) he was usually the tallest person in any room, and with his deep bass voice, was usually the most commanding. Prescott had rigid standards of conduct, and was described as "a moralist who lived the Ten Commandments." He believed decent people didn't speak openly, even in private, about religion, money or sex. He always rose when a lady entered the room and required coats and ties to dinner, even at Kennebunkport. And although he disliked any type of boasting he insisted his grandchildren call him “Senator.” Prescott was also wonderful golfer and played with some of the greatest golfers of his day including Francis Ouimet and Bobby Jones. And since he was the best golfer in the Senate, he often played with President Eisenhower at the Burning Tree course... (although not as frequently as the Bush family legends hold). Indeed, Father Bush was never able to beat his father in golf, even when Prescott was much older and frail.
   Although never mentioned, Prescott’s possible role in two pivotal episodes in G.H. W. Bush’s life deserves comment. The first was when graduating from Andover in the Spring of 1942, George decided he wanted to enlist rather than go to Yale. Henry Stimson, a Republican in FDR’s cabinet, spoke at the Andover commencement and strongly urged the graduates to continue their education before entering the military. After the ceremony Prescott asked if Stimson’s speech had changed his mind, and George replied “No sir, I’m going in.” It certainly seems possible that Prescott, a prodigious fundraiser for the Republican party, had suggested that Stimson make those remarks? If so they obviously had little effect. On the other hand, it is also possible that George Bush entered to make up for the bad publicity his father received over the Union Bank, and because his older brother was not able to serve... and it is curious -- and unprecedented -- that George was allowed to enter flight training when he was only eighteen years old. In any event the only time George ever saw his father cry was when Prescott dropped him off at Penn Station to leave for his military training.
     The second pivotal event was when George was looking for a job after graduating from Yale. Although Prescott had his investment firm’s anti-nepotism rule waived so George could join the firm, George (and Barbara) decided to escape the path set out for them and take a different route. But when George applied for a position at Proctor and Gamble, he was turned down.... even though he was a war hero, a star graduate of Andover and Yale, a Bonesman, and his father was a close friend of Red Dupree, chairman of Proctor & Gamble... Simply put, these facts just don’t add up, especially since Prescott had helped his son get a job at TWA... unless Prescott had a hand in P&G’s rejection. And then when George, upset that P&G hadn’t accepted him, went to work in the oil fields in Odessa Texas for Dresser Industries, another company with close ties to his father (its CEO was Neil Mallon, a Bonesman with Prescott at Yale), his jobs were menial in the extreme (sweeping the floors, painting oil rigs, etc.), and the housing conditions primitive (at one point George and Barbara’s apartment house roommates were 2 ladies of the evening). And it wasn’t until George stuck it out and decided to go off on his own that Neil Mallon finally encouraged and advised him. Again, isn’t it possible Prescott had a hand in this, with the hope George would return home and take his “proper” place in the Brown Brothers firm?
     In any event Prescott decided not to run for re-election again in 1962 although polls showed he would probably win... a decision he soon deeply regretted. Prescott noted how the appeal of high elective office could be so strong as to be addictive – even for someone from the privileged world of high finance, saying: