Former President George H.W. Bush has died at 94

George H.W. Bush, the 41st president of the United States, has died at the age of 94. During his presidency from 1989 to 1993, Bush, a Republican, oversaw a handful of foreign policy decisions that would come to define his legacy. He helped navigate the aftermath of the end of the Cold War, and his even-handed approach to diplomacy is credited for facilitating a peaceful breakup of the Soviet Union. He also routed a group of Iraqi invaders from Kuwait in 1991, which, as The New York Times put it, "brought years of American preoccupation with Iraq."

Bush spent more than 40 years serving the public. He was a World War II Navy pilot, a Texas congressman, a U.N. ambassador, chairman of the Republican National Committee, CIA director, vice president under former President Ronald Reagan, and then president. His eldest son, George W. Bush, became the 43rd U.S. president, and his second son, Jeb Bush, served as governor of Florida.

In his later years, Bush Senior was diagnosed with Parkinson's and was in and out of the hospital for various health problems, including bronchitis and a blood infection. According to the Times, Bush Junior solicited ideas for his eulogy in 2013, but the elder Bush bounced back. "George H.W. Bush was a man of the highest character and the best dad a son or daughter could ask for," Bush Junior said in a statement. He died at his Houston home on Friday, Nov. 30.

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Bush Senior lived longer than any other U.S. president, CNBC reports. His wife, former first lady Barbara Bush, died just under eight months ago at the age of 92.