Bush challenges students to lives of service

Posted: 2/17/06

Bush challenges students to lives of service

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

BELTON—Former President George Bush stressed the importance of service, integrity and ties to family and friends during a lecture at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor.

“There is no definition of a successful life that doesn’t include service to others,” Bush told a capacity crowd at the university’s Mayborn Campus Center, Feb. 10.

The UMHB College of Business sponsored the McLane Lecture, made possible by Baptist layman and Houston Astros owner Drayton McLane.

The nation needs “caring citizens who will make their community better than how they found it,” Bush said, challenging students to become “points of light”—a call to volunteer service that marked his presidency.

A person does not have to become president of the United States to make a significant difference in the lives of other people, he insisted.

“All you have to do is care. Roll up your sleeves, get off the sidelines and get into the game,” he urged.

Whether in business or public service, nothing substitutes for integrity, he added.

“I’ve always believed character matters,” he said. “Friendship, family and faith—you can build a life on these three things.”

During a question-and-answer session with business students, Bush responded to a query about his partnership with former President Bill Clinton in leading fund-raising efforts for disaster relief. The two former presidents helped raised more than $150 million for tsunami relief and about $100 million for Gulf Coast hurricane relief.

“It’s important to reach out and help. It’s important for people with different philosophies and from different political parties to demonstrate there are some things more important than partisan politics,” he said.

Prior to delivering his lecture, Bush received an honorary doctor of humanities degree from UMHB President Jerry Bawcom.