6, 1946. George W.’s father continued his studies at Yale after his son was born, and would graduate two years later in the spring of 1948. The day after graduation, the elder Bush set off for West Texas and a job at the International Derrick and Equipment Company in Odessa, Texas; his wife and son arrived two weeks later. Odessa was a blue-collar town, where pipe-layers and roughnecks lived. Odessa’s white-collar sister city was Midland, where the oil deals were made, and the company headquarters were established. More importantly, this is where George H.W. aspired to be. But for now the couple moved into a small apartment in Odessa, where instead of dealing with oilmen they had to deal with another couple with whom they shared their bathroom.The family temporarily moved to California in 1949, but returned to the Texas after a year. But they did not move back to Odessa; instead they moved into a small wooden bungalow in Midland. It was while living here that Bush and John Overbey began to consider the possibility of starting their own oil company, and by 1950 the Bush-Overbey Oil Development Company, Inc., was a reality. The company did business buying and selling oil-drilling royalty rights in the Permian Basin.Big George directed the local chamber of commerce, helped draw up the papers for the Midland Commercial Bank and Trust Company, sat in on planning sessions for the YMCA, was on the local cancer board, and also taught George W.’s Sunday school class at the First Presbyterian Church, where the Bush family attended weekly. At the church, he eventually became a church deacon and church elder. The entire time he was involved with these activities, he was also gathering people to convert to the Republican Party. He was involved in countless activities, and was home less and less as time wore on. In February of 1953, George W.’s brother Jeb was born, and it was at this time that their parents real...
