Former President George HW Bush dead at age 94

George Herbert Walker Bush, the president who managed the end of the Cold War and forged a global coalition to oust Iraqi forces from Kuwait, has died at age 94. In a political career that spanned three decades, he lost his bid for re-election and lived to see his son win the Oval Office.

George Herbert Walker Bush, the World War II veteran who was elected the 41st President of the United Statesand fathered the nation’s 43rd, died late Friday at the age of 94, his family announced in a statement.

The Republican spent decades serving in government before ascending to the nation’s highest office, having served as United Nations ambassador, CIA chief and vice president under Ronald Reagan, a towering political figure still venerated by the GOP.

Bush advocated a “kinder, gentler” form of conservatism, pursued policies that helped topple the Soviet empire and initiated military campaigns that ousted one foreign dictator while crippling another. He lived longer than any other U.S. president, and presided over the demise of the Cold War, punctuated by the fall of the Berlin Wall.