---
aliases:
- Prescott Bush
- Prescott S. Bush
- Prescott Sheldon Bush
born: 1895-05-15
category: Political Figure
created: 2026-10-26
died: 1972-10-08
location: Greenwich, Connecticut
relations:
- fn: 3
  role: member, Yale class of 1917
  type: member_of
  with: '[[Skull and Bones]]'
- fn: 1
  role: trustee
  type: member_of
  with: '[[Yale University]]'
- end: 1963-01-02
  fn: 1
  role: Senator from Connecticut
  start: 1952-11-04
  type: member_of
  with: '[[United States Senate]]'
- end: 1942-10-20
  fn: 25
  role: one of seven directors according to the incorporation documents reported by
    the Guardian; registered holder of one share in Vesting Order No. 248
  start: 1924-08-04
  type: director_of
  with: '[[Union Banking Corporation]]'
- fn: 44
  role: chairman of the board, early 1940s
  type: director_of
  with: '[[Pennsylvania Water and Power Company]]'
- fn: 38
  role: director
  type: director_of
  with: '[[Dresser Industries]]'
- fn: 43
  role: director, from 1932
  start: 1932
  type: director_of
  with: '[[CBS]]'
- fn: 16
  role: partner
  type: employed_by
  with: '[[Brown Brothers Harriman]]'
- fn: 43
  role: partner at Brown Brothers Harriman
  type: partner_of
  with: '[[W. Averell Harriman]]'
- fn: 17
  role: partner at Brown Brothers Harriman
  type: partner_of
  with: '[[E. Roland Harriman]]'
- fn: 16
  role: partner at Brown Brothers Harriman
  type: partner_of
  with: '[[Knight Woolley]]'
- fn: 47
  role: national campaign chairman
  type: head_of
  with: '[[United Service Organizations]]'
- fn: 48
  role: vice president and executive committee member; national campaign chairman
  type: member_of
  with: '[[National War Fund]]'
- fn: 58
  role: treasurer of the 1947 national fund-raising campaign
  start: 1947
  type: member_of
  with: '[[Planned Parenthood Federation of America]]'
- fn: 4
  start: 1921
  type: spouse_of
  with: '[[Dorothy Walker Bush]]'
- fn: 1
  role: son
  type: relative_of
  with: '[[George H.W. Bush]]'
- fn: 1
  role: grandson
  type: relative_of
  with: '[[George W. Bush]]'
summary: Investment banker and Republican senator from Connecticut from 1952 to 1963,
  a Yale 1917 member of Skull and Bones named as a shareholder in the 1942 vesting
  of the Thyssen-linked Union Banking Corporation.
tags:
- Person
- UnitedStatesSenate
- Connecticut
- BrownBrothersHarriman
- UnionBankingCorporation
- ThyssenNetwork
- AlienPropertyCustodian
- TradingWithTheEnemyAct
- SkullAndBones
- Geronimo
- PlannedParenthood
- McCarthyCensure
- NationalWarFund
- USO
- CIA
- BushFamily
- Yale
- WorldWarII
title: Prescott Bush
updated: 2026-10-26
---

Prescott Sheldon Bush (May 15, 1895 to October 8, 1972) was a partner in [Brown Brothers Harriman](/organizations/brown-brothers-harriman/) and a Republican who represented Connecticut in the [United States Senate](/organizations/united-states-senate/) from November 4, 1952 to January 2, 1963.[^1] He was the father of President [George H.W. Bush](/people/george-hw-bush/) and the grandfather of President [George W. Bush](/people/george-w-bush/).[^1] The Federal Register of November 7, 1942 lists him among the registered holders of the [Union Banking Corporation](/organizations/union-banking-corporation/), a New York bank whose stock the Alien Property Custodian vested as held for a Dutch bank owned or controlled, in the order's words, by members of the Thyssen family.[^2]

### Yale, the Army and Greenwich

The class history of the [Yale University](/organizations/yale-university/) class of 1917 records that Bush was born May 15, 1895, in Columbus, Ohio, that his father, Samuel Prescott Bush, born on Staten Island in 1863, took an M.E. degree at the Stevens Institute of Technology in 1884 and was president of the Buckeye Steel Castings Company, and that his mother was Flora Sheldon Bush.[^3] He prepared at St. George's School in Newport, Rhode Island, sang in the Glee Club, Quartet and Choir, played golf and baseball for Yale and won his "Y," sat on the executive committee of Dwight Hall, the College Student Council and the Junior Prom and Class Day committees, was a football cheer leader and a member of the Yale Battery, and belonged to the Whiffenpoofs, Psi Upsilon and [Skull and Bones](/organizations/skull-and-bones/). The entry states that he intended to enter the law.[^3]

The Biographical Directory of the United States Congress records that he enlisted in the Connecticut National Guard in 1916; served as a captain of field artillery with the American Expeditionary Forces from 1917 to 1919; worked as a warehouse clerk in the hardware business in St. Louis; moved to Greenwich, Connecticut in 1924; entered banking in [New York City](/places/new-york-city/) in 1926; served as moderator of the Greenwich Representative Town Meeting from 1935 to 1952; and was a trustee of Yale University.[^1] The [Guardian](/organizations/the-guardian/) reported in 2004 that he married Dorothy Walker, daughter of the St. Louis investment banker George Herbert Walker, in 1921.[^4]

Garry Wills wrote in 1992 that Bush served six years as secretary and two as vice president of the United States Golf Association before becoming its president in 1935, and that in 1951 he shot a 68 in the Senior Championship at Apawamis Club, a course and tournament record.[^5]

### Skull and Bones

The entries for Bush, [E. Roland Harriman](/people/e-roland-harriman/) ("Bunny," son of E. H. Harriman), [Knight Woolley](/people/knight-woolley/) and [Neil Mallon](/people/neil-mallon/) in the Yale 1917 class history each state that the man belonged to Psi Upsilon and Skull and Bones. Harriman's entry lists a brother, William Averell Harriman of the class of 1913, among his Yale relatives, and names him to the class Triennial Committee; Bush appears on the Class Day Committee and the senior delegation.[^3][^6] The Guardian described Woolley in 2004 as Bush's "friend and fellow 'bonesman'."[^7]

The George H. W. Bush Presidential Library's response to a 2009 request for records on Skull and Bones, filed as FOIA 2009-0116-F, describes its material as relating to the society "of which George H. W. Bush and his father Prescott Bush were both members."[^8] The response says that staff and office files contain newspaper articles on the family's connections to the society, and that several of the articles address the rumor "that Prescott Bush and a group of Skull and Bones members had disinterred and taken Apache leader Geronimo's skull."[^8] The file also holds administrative forms for a Skull and Bones tea, dated October 20, 1989, in the records of the White House Social Office.[^9]

On May 9, 2006 the [Associated Press](/organizations/associated-press/) reported a letter that the researcher Marc Wortman had found in the autumn of 2005. It was written in 1918 by one society member to another and describes the skull and some remains as taken from the grave at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, to a stone tomb in New Haven, Connecticut: "The skull of the worthy Geronimo the Terrible, exhumed from its tomb at Fort Sill by your club ... is now safe inside the (Tomb) together with his well worn femurs, bit & saddle horn."[^10] The report names the writer as Winter Mead and states that Mead was not at Fort Sill. It gives the society's legend as the source of the claim that members, "including President George W. Bush's grandfather, Prescott Bush," dug up the grave when a group of Army volunteers from Yale were stationed at the fort during World War I.[^10] Wortman said: "What I think we could probably say is they removed some skull and bones and other materials from a grave at Fort Sill," and added, "Historically, it may be impossible to prove it's Geronimo's."[^10]

[Antony C. Sutton](/people/antony-c-sutton/) printed a chart in his book on the society, first published in 1983, under the heading "Hypothesis Number One: A Secret Society Dominated By Old Line American Families And New Wealth Has Existed From 1833 To The Present Day." The chart places "The Order" at the center of family spokes that include the Harriman family, labeled with railroads, along with families of Massachusetts settlement and families of Standard Oil, J. P. Morgan, lumber, flour milling and retail wealth. The tiers and settlement dates on the chart are Sutton's hypotheses.[^11]

### Brown Brothers Harriman

The caption to the photograph of Bush in John A. Kouwenhoven's 1968 history of the firm describes him as vice-president and a director of W. A. Harriman & Co., Inc. and a partner in Harriman Brothers & Co. at the time of the merger with Brown Brothers & Co., and as secretary of the United States Golf Association at the time of the 1932 championship matches (president from 1935).[^12] The firm's partner table gives January 1, 1930 as his partnership date in Harriman Brothers & Co. and January 1, 1931 in Brown Brothers Harriman.[^13] The history records that in 1942 he became national campaign chairman of the combined fund-raising drives of the USO and other wartime charities, and gives his Senate service as 1952 to 1962; the Senate's Connecticut timeline gives "until 1963."[^14] Antony C. Sutton wrote that Bush was a partner of Brown Brothers Harriman for over forty years.[^15]

Wills wrote that Bush became, with Knight Woolley, the principal expert at Brown Brothers Harriman on which projects to back, and quoted Bush's oral-history interviews: "We [he and Woolley] were running the business, the day-to-day business, all the administrative decisions and the executive decisions. We were the ones that did it."[^16] Wills wrote that Roland Harriman refused in 1946 when Bush first asked permission to seek a seat in the House of Representatives, saying that a race for the House was beneath a Brown Brothers Harriman partner and that the Senate might be different.[^17] According to Wills, Bush's father-in-law Walker was the partner of [W. Averell Harriman](/people/w-averell-harriman/) in the ownership of race horses.[^5]

Ben Aris and Duncan Campbell reported in the Guardian in 2004 that Walker helped set Bush up in business in New York in 1924 with Harriman, "the wealthy son of railroad magnate E H Harriman," and that one of the first jobs Walker gave Bush was to manage the Union Banking Corporation.[^18] They described Bush as a founding member of the bank and wrote that the bank "was set up by Harriman and Bush's father-in-law to provide a US bank for the Thyssens."[^18] The same article states: "While there is no suggestion that Prescott Bush was sympathetic to the Nazi cause, the documents reveal that the firm he worked for, Brown Brothers Harriman (BBH), acted as a US base for the German industrialist, Fritz Thyssen, who helped finance Hitler in the 1930s before falling out with him at the end of the decade."[^19] The Guardian wrote that its account rested on three sets of archives: the Harriman papers at the Library of Congress, the vesting-order files at the National Archives, and the files on IG Farben.[^20]

The Guardian also reported that the Harriman papers contain a wartime profile of Harriman in the New York Journal American and, next to it in the files, a letter from Bush to the paper's financial editor praising the profile, quoting Bush: Harriman's "performance and his whole attitude has been a source of inspiration and pride to his partners and his friends."[^21]

### Union Banking Corporation and Vesting Order No. 248

A Treasury Department memorandum dated August 18, 1941, from E. G. May to John W. Pehle, with the subject "Union Banking Corporation," states that the corporation, incorporated August 4, 1924, was "wholly owned by the Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart, N.V., of Rotterdam, The Netherlands," that the investigation "produced no evidence as to the ownership of this Dutch bank," and that its president, Cornelis Lievense, believed it possible that Baron Heinrich Thyssen, brother of Fritz Thyssen, might own a substantial interest. It records that in 1931 to 1933 the corporation made gold purchases of over eight million dollars, of which about three million dollars was shipped abroad and $3,085,000 was delivered to the Federal Reserve Bank on June 15, 1934, and that during the Munich crisis in the fall of 1938 the corporation held two million dollars in currency in a New York safe deposit box, later deposited in its account with Brown Brothers Harriman.[^22] The Guardian dates the same memorandum August 16, 1941.[^22] On January 14, 1941, Knight Woolley, a partner of Brown Brothers Harriman, wrote to the New York superintendent of banks, William R. White, on behalf of "E. R. Harriman, Ray Morris, Prescott S. Bush and our manager, H. D. Pennington," who are named in the letter as the corporation's directors. The letter says that the directors, Bush among them, "feel they might be under some embarrassment because of their connection with the bank" if the United States entered the war, and asks the superintendent for "a frank expression" on what action they should take. White replied on May 13, 1941 that the department "would be gratified if these gentlemen could find it possible to remain on the board during this period of uncertainty."[^23]

The Guardian reported that on July 30, 1942 the New York Herald-Tribune ran an article headed "Hitler's Angel Has $3m in US Bank," and that the Alien Property Custodian then opened an investigation.[^24] On October 20, 1942 the Custodian, Leo T. Crowley, signed Vesting Order No. 248 under the Trading with the Enemy Act. Part (a) vested all 4,000 shares of $100 par value common stock of the corporation and lists the registered owners: E. Roland Harriman with 3,991 shares; Lievense with 4; and Harold D. Pennington, Ray Morris, Prescott S. Bush, H. J. Kouwenhoven and Johann G. Groeninger with 1 share each. The order states that the shares "are held for the benefit of Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart, N. V., Rotterdam, The Netherlands, which bank is owned or controlled by members of the Thyssen family, nationals of Germany and/or Hungary." Part (b) vested all indebtedness owing by the corporation to Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart and to the August Thyssen-Bank of [Berlin](/places/berlin/), including security rights in collateral.[^2]

Aris and Campbell reported that the incorporation documents "list him as one of seven directors" and show that he owned one share worth $125.[^25] They reported that Homer Jones, chief of the Alien Property Custodian's investigation and research division, sent a memorandum to the custodian's executive committee within weeks of the investigation, naming the bank's directors including Bush and describing the shares as "held by the above named individuals, however, solely as nominees for the Bank voor Handel, Rotterdam, Holland, which is owned by one or more of the Thyssen family."[^26]

The Guardian quoted John Loftus, a former federal prosecutor, who disputed that Bush held only a token share, citing sources "in the banking and intelligence communities" and suggesting that the Bush family, "through George Herbert Walker and Prescott," received $1.5 million from the involvement. The article added: "There is, however, no paper trail to this sum."[^27] The Guardian reported that the Bush family and the United States government deny the claims, and quoted a statement by the [Anti-Defamation League](/organizations/anti-defamation-league/) that the "charges are untenable and politically motivated" and that Prescott Bush "was neither a Nazi nor a Nazi sympathiser."[^28]

### Holland-American, Seamless Steel and Silesian-American

Vesting Order No. 259, executed October 28, 1942 and published in the Federal Register of December 19, 1942, vested all 500 shares of $100 par value stock of the Seamless Steel Equipment Corporation, a New York corporation, registered in the name of Cornelis Lievense and held for the benefit of Press- und Walzwerk A.G. of Düsseldorf and of Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart.[^29] Vesting Order No. 261, executed the same day, vested all 500 shares of the Holland-American Trading Corporation, registered to E. Roland Harriman (491), C. Lievense (4), and one share each to H. D. Pennington, Ray Morris, Knight Woolley, H. J. Kouwenhoven and J. G. Groeninger, all held for the benefit of Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart.[^30] The Guardian described these two companies as affiliates against which "further seizures were made" after the Union Banking Corporation seizure.[^31]

In Silesian American Corporation v. Clark, 332 U.S. 469, reargued November 12, 1947 and decided December 8, 1947, Justice Stanley Reed wrote for the [Supreme Court of the United States](/organizations/supreme-court-of-the-united-states/) that the Alien Property Custodian executed Vesting Order No. 370 on November 17, 1942, finding the property to belong to a national of Germany. The property was a block of common and a block of preferred stock in the Silesian American Corporation, a Delaware corporation, which before August 31, 1939 stood in the stock book in the name of Non Ferrum, a Swiss corporation of Zurich, held, according to the Custodian's order, for Bergwerksgesellschaft Georg von Giesche's Erben, a German corporation. The corporation had been a debtor under Chapter X of the Bankruptcy Act since July 30, 1941; its majority stockholder was the Silesian Holding Company, also a Delaware corporation; the Court affirmed the lower courts' order that the corporation issue new certificates to the Custodian.[^32] The Guardian wrote that "By November, the Silesian-American Company, another of Prescott Bush's ventures, had also been seized."[^33]

The Guardian reported that John Buchanan, a Miami magazine journalist, published findings from the vesting files in the New Hampshire Gazette in 2003.[^34] The Gazette of November 7, 2003 carried an article headed "Bush: Nazi Dealings Continued Until 1951," which stated that after the seizures of late 1942 of five enterprises he managed for Thyssen, Bush "failed to divest himself of more than a dozen 'enemy national' relationships that continued until as late as 1951, newly-discovered U.S. government documents reveal." It named W. Averell Harriman and E. Roland Harriman as partners in the ventures and gave 1924 to 1951 as the span of transactions conducted by Brown Brothers Harriman.[^35]

### Consolidated Silesian Steel and John Foster Dulles

Aris and Campbell wrote that the Consolidated Silesian Steel Company (CSSC), a Silesian steel and mining company, was linked to Bush in National Archives documents declassified in 2003. They quoted the writer Eva Schweitzer: "SAC held coal mines and definitely owned CSSC between 1934 and 1935, but when SAC was vested there was no trace of CSSC." The article cites a New York Times article of March 18, 1934 as stating that Friedrich Flick owned two-thirds of CSSC while "American interests" held the rest.[^36]

The Guardian quoted a January 1933 letter from Knight Woolley to W. Averell Harriman: "The Consolidated Silesian Steel Company situation has become increasingly complicated, and I have accordingly brought in Sullivan and Cromwell, in order to be sure that our interests are protected." It continues: "After studying the situation Foster Dulles is insisting that their man in Berlin get into the picture and obtain the information which the directors here should have. You will recall that Foster is a director and he is particularly anxious to be certain that there is no liability attaching to the American directors." The Guardian identified the reference as to [John Foster Dulles](/people/john-foster-dulles/) of [Sullivan and Cromwell](/organizations/sullivan-cromwell/), and the letter as concerning the Polish government's drive to nationalize the plant.[^37]

### Directorships: Dresser Industries, CBS and Pennsylvania Water and Power

Wills wrote that Bush "ended up on the boards of many firms he underwrote, including CBS." Quoting Bush: "In 1929 we bought Dresser Company of Bradford, Pennsylvania for four million dollars, and we sold securities against that company and refinanced it, you see, so that we retained a substantial measure of control."[^38] Wills reports that Bush served on the board of Dresser Industries and made his Yale friend Neil Mallon its chief executive, and that when George H.W. Bush went from Yale to Texas in 1948 he was hired by Mallon to work for a Dresser subsidiary. Bush recalled: "I was Neil Mallon's chief adviser and consultant in connection with every move that he made with that business during that period of twenty years."[^38]

The Handbook of Texas entry on Dresser Industries states that Prescott Bush, then "a W. A. Harriman and Company executive," had been involved in the 1928 conversion of Dresser into a public company, and that "he served on the board of directors for twenty-two years."[^39] The company histories date the sale of the family business to W. A. Harriman and Company to 1928, and Bush's own recollection, quoted above, dates the purchase to 1929. Neil Mallon became president and chief executive in 1928, when the company was converted.[^40] The 1979 company history lists Mallon as president from 1929 to 1962.[^41] Bill Minutaglio wrote that Prescott Bush called Mallon "a very able fellow" and hand-selected him to head Dresser.[^42]

Wills places Bush's CBS board seat in 1932, when William S. Paley came to the firm with Herbert Swope to arrange the purchase of a half interest in the CBS company, owned by Paramount Pictures, for five million dollars. Paley could raise half, and the Harriman firm raised the other two and a half million; Bush recalled that "Averell put me on it." Wills wrote that Bush "went onto the CBS board to watch what was being done with the investment."[^43]

The Hagley Museum and Library describes the Pennsylvania Water and Power Company as a company whose board Bush joined as chairman in the early 1940s: "Joining the company as Chairman of the Board in the early 1940s was Wall Street executive banker and later U.S. senator, Prescott S. Bush."[^44] In a 1942 letter to company president John Abbet Walls, Bush wrote: "Mr. Buckner's death raises, of course, the question of replacement on the board, and I am not forgetting that we should also replace Mr. Gleason this spring."[^45] The company's presidential records are Hagley Accession 2627 and span 1905 to 1946.[^46]

### The USO and the National War Fund

Frank Coffey's official photographic history of the United Service Organizations states that under national campaign chairman Thomas E. Dewey the organization had raised over $16 million, and that in 1942 Dewey resigned. The book reproduces a USO appeal letter signed "Prescott S. Bush, National Campaign Chairman," printed with [John D. Rockefeller Jr.](/people/john-d-rockefeller-jr/) as honorary chairman.[^47]

The National War Fund, the federation of war-relief and USO appeals that ran from 1943 to 1947, listed Bush among its vice presidents and on its executive committee. Its Speakers Handbook, issued as of August 13, 1945, names as president Winthrop W. Aldrich and as vice presidents Jean B. Adoue Jr. of Texas, Prescott S. Bush of New York, Robert M. Hanes of North Carolina, Francis P. Matthews of Nebraska, Walter Rothschild of New York, Edward L. Ryerson of Illinois, Robert G. Sproul of California and Henry M. Wriston of Rhode Island. Its executive committee includes Aldrich, Bush, [Henry R. Luce](/people/henry-luce/) and Rockefeller; its budget committee chairman was Gerard Swope.[^48] The Fund's official history, by Harold J. Seymour, names Bush "National Campaign Chairman" and describes him as the sixth man picked in the formation of the leadership, "Averill Harriman's banking partner."[^49]

### Allen Dulles and the Central Intelligence Agency

The [Central Intelligence Agency](/organizations/central-intelligence-agency/) reading-room collection holds correspondence between Bush and the Agency's directors from his first year in the Senate. [Allen Dulles](/people/allen-dulles/) answered a letter of January 27, 1953 from Bush about the employment of a person Bush had recommended on February 3, 1953, addressing him "Dear Pres," and wrote on April 2, 1953 that a person Bush had asked about was not being considered for any appointment and that he did not know in what connection the [Federal Bureau of Investigation](/organizations/federal-bureau-of-investigation/) might be inquiring into the person's background.[^50] An internal memorandum approved by Dulles in 1957 records that Bush, recently returned from a trip to Europe on which he gathered information on [NATO](/organizations/nato/) and the defenses of Western Europe, was interested in the case of John Downey, and recommends that the Agency debrief him on the trip and brief him on Downey together.[^51]

Dulles replied on September 8, 1959 to a letter in which Bush, a member of the Senate Committee on Armed Services, had forwarded a correspondent's letter about charges made against the Agency in the New York Mirror column of Lee Mortimer. Dulles wrote that an Agency representative had met Mortimer in August, that all individuals the Agency employed were investigated, and that Mortimer's statement about CIA accountability to Congress was not entirely accurate.[^52] Acting Director Charles P. Cabell wrote on June 21, 1960 that Dulles had left before seeing Bush's letter of June 3, and thanked him for sending a Hartford Courant editorial and an article by Donald McLachlan.[^53]

On October 18, 1960 Dulles wrote to Bush at Greenwich that he had noted a planned trip to Latin America and offered to brief him before his departure and to receive his observations on his return. Bush answered on October 25, 1960: "Tracy Barnes did call and I shall work out an engagement through him in order that I may get a briefing which, heaven knows, I need," adding "Dorothy and I speak of you many times. We appreciate so much our friendship with you and Clover."[^54] [John A. McCone](/people/john-mccone/), Dulles's successor, wrote Bush on November 8, 1961 that he had read the correspondence concerning Bogota, Colombia, enclosed in Bush's recent letter, and had forwarded it to the officials concerned with Colombia, and wrote again on January 8, 1962 about a person Bush had brought to his attention.[^55] A September 6, 1961 Senate extension of remarks by Bush is titled "Central Intelligence Agency: A Guardian of the National Security."[^56]

Wills wrote that Bush "was a strong backer of the CIA, of its covert operations, and of its director, Allen Dulles," and that his only criticism of the [Bay of Pigs](/events/bay-of-pigs/) was that [John F. Kennedy](/people/john-f-kennedy/) did not "go through with that enterprise" when it bogged down.[^57]

### Planned Parenthood

The Margaret Sanger Papers Project at [New York University](/organizations/new-york-university/) states that Bush "in 1947 served as the treasurer of Planned Parenthood's first nationwide fund-raising campaign" and shared the masthead of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America with Margaret Sanger at a time when contraception was illegal in Connecticut.[^58] The Project places columnist Drew Pearson's disclosure of the ties, in a national television commentary just days before the election, in the 1950 Senate race, which Bush lost by about a thousand votes, and states that the family vehemently denied any association with the organization.[^59] George H.W. Bush wrote in a 1973 foreword: "Many political observers felt a sufficient number of voters were swayed by his alleged contacts with the birth controllers to cost him the election."[^60] Wills places Pearson's column late in the 1952 campaign, stating that Pearson wrote that Bush was a president of the Birth Control League, that Bush "supported Planned Parenthood" without being an officer of the League, and that Bush bought special broadcast time and distributed fliers after Mass asking Catholics to tune in.[^61]

### Senate, 1950 to 1963

Wills wrote that Bush lost the 1950 special election for the seat vacated by Raymond Baldwin to William Benton by "a thousand votes," with 862,000 votes cast, after a primary against Vivian Kellems; that Bush had first deferred to Luce, who had expressed interest in the seat; and that in 1952 Clare Boothe Luce competed with Bush for the nomination to fill the vacancy created by the death of Senator James O'Brien McMahon.[^62] The Biographical Directory records that Bush was elected on November 4, 1952 to fill that vacancy, was reelected in 1956, was not a candidate in 1962 and resumed banking and investment work.[^1] Wills wrote that Bush won the 1952 special election against Abraham Ribicoff; that Bush attacked Averell Harriman during the campaign, saying Harriman's "political thinking and judgment have been completely changed since he ceased active participation in our firm years ago to enter government"; and that Bush appeared on a platform with [Joseph McCarthy](/people/joseph-mccarthy/) in Connecticut that year.[^63]

Wills reported that Sherman Adams arranged the first of many golf matches between Bush and President [Dwight D. Eisenhower](/people/dwight-d-eisenhower/), that Bush organized a dinner for the President at Burning Tree Club, that Bush served on the Banking and Currency Committee, and that in 1960 he chaired the platform subcommittee on labor.[^64]

On December 2, 1954 the Senate adopted Senate Resolution 301, censuring Joseph McCarthy, by a vote of 67 to 22. Bush voted yea.[^65] Before the vote Bush spoke in support of a substitute motion, telling the Senate that "No question of free speech is involved. Free speech does not mean unrestrained," and referring to his statement of December 1.[^66] Wills wrote that Bush called Adams to suggest that Eisenhower invite Senator Arthur Watkins, who chaired the censure committee, to dinner at the White House.[^64]

On May 29, 1956 the Senate agreed, 41 to 39, to an amendment offered by Senator William F. Knowland of [California](/places/california/) to the Senate's highway bill. Bush voted in the negative.[^67] On June 26, 1956 the Senate agreed to the conference report on the bill by 89 votes to 1, and Bush voted yea.[^68]

[^1]: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-2005, H. Doc. 108-222 (Washington: GPO, 2005), PDF p. 762, "BUSH, Prescott Sheldon (father of George Herbert Walker Bush, grandfather of President George W. Bush)": born in Columbus, Ohio, May 15, 1895; Douglas School and St. George's School, Newport, R.I., 1908-1913; Yale 1917; Connecticut National Guard 1916; captain, Field Artillery, AEF 1917-1919; warehouse clerk in the hardware business in St. Louis; Greenwich 1924; banking in New York City 1926; moderator, Greenwich Representative Town Meeting 1935-1952; trustee, Yale University; unsuccessful candidate in 1950; elected November 4, 1952 to fill the vacancy caused by the death of James O'Brien McMahon; reelected 1956; served to January 2, 1963; not a candidate in 1962; died in New York City October 8, 1972; interment in Putnam Cemetery, Greenwich. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CDOC-108hdoc222/pdf/GPO-CDOC-108hdoc222.pdf
[^2]: Office of the Alien Property Custodian, Vesting Order No. 248, "All of the Capital Stock of Union Banking Corporation and Certain Indebtedness Owing by It," executed at Washington on October 20, 1942, *Federal Register* 7 (November 7, 1942), pp. 9097-9098 (F.R. Doc. 42-11568, filed November 6, 1942, 11:31 a.m.), registered-owner table and findings (a) and (b). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-1942-11-07/pdf/FR-1942-11-07.pdf
[^3]: *History of the Class of Nineteen Hundred and Seventeen, Yale College*, vol. I (New Haven: printed for the class under the direction of the Yale University Press, 1917), entry "Prescott Sheldon Bush" (pp. 105-106): born May 15, 1895 in Columbus, Ohio; father Samuel Prescott Bush, president of the Buckeye Steel Castings Company; mother Flora (Sheldon) Bush; St. George's School; Glee Club, Quartet and Choir; golf and baseball; Dwight Hall executive committee; College Student Council; Class Day Committee; Yale Battery; "He belongs to the Whiffenpoofs, Psi Upsilon, and Skull and Bones"; "Bush intends to enter the law." https://archive.org/details/historyofclassofOOmurr
[^4]: Ben Aris and Duncan Campbell, "How Bush's grandfather helped Hitler's rise to power," *The Guardian*, September 25, 2004: Prescott Bush "married Dorothy Walker, the daughter of George Herbert Walker, in 1921." https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar
[^5]: Garry Wills, "Father Knows Best," *The New York Review of Books*, November 5, 1992: Bush as secretary of the USGA for six years, vice president for two, president in 1935; a 68 in the Senior Championship at Apawamis in 1951; his father-in-law as partner of Averell Harriman in the ownership of race horses. https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1992/11/05/father-knows-best/
[^6]: *History of the Class of Nineteen Hundred and Seventeen, Yale College*, vol. I (1917), entries for Edward Roland Noel Harriman ("He is a member of Psi Upsilon and Skull and Bones"; Triennial Committee; relatives include William Averell Harriman, '13, a brother), Knight Woolley (pp. 343-344: "He belongs to Psi Upsilon and Skull and Bones") and Henry Neil Mallon ("He is a member of Psi Upsilon and Skull and Bones"), and the committee lists for the Class Day Committee and the senior delegation. https://archive.org/details/historyofclassofOOmurr
[^7]: Aris and Campbell, *The Guardian*, September 25, 2004: "Bush's friend and fellow 'bonesman' Knight Woolley, another partner at BBH." https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar
[^8]: George H. W. Bush Presidential Library, FOIA 2009-0116-F, "Records on Skull and Bones Society," scope and content note, processed August 2009. https://bush41library.gov/download/file/4777
[^9]: National Archives and Records Administration, Records of the White House Social Office (George H. W. Bush Administration), Cathy Fenton Subject Files, Container 07104, "10/20/89 Skull and Bones Tea," NAID 492080005, as listed in the container list of FOIA 2009-0116-F. https://bush41library.gov/download/file/4777
[^10]: Associated Press, reprinted by CBS News, "Letter May Back Yale Claim On Geronimo," May 9, 2006: letter dated 1918 "written by one member of Skull and Bones to another," found by Marc Wortman "last fall"; "according to the letter, written by Winter Mead"; "But Mead was not at Fort Sill"; "According to Skull and Bones legend, members, including President George W. Bush's grandfather, Prescott Bush, dug up Geronimo's grave when a group of Army volunteers from Yale were stationed at the fort during World War I"; the Wortman quotations. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/letter-may-back-yale-claim-on-geronimo/
[^11]: Antony C. Sutton, *America's Secret Establishment: An Introduction to the Order of Skull & Bones* (1983), chart "Hypothesis Number One: A Secret Society Dominated By Old Line American Families And New Wealth Has Existed From 1833 To The Present Day," with spokes labeled Whitney, Perkins, Stimson, Taft, Phelps, Bundy, Wadsworth, Lord, Gilman, Rockefeller and Payne (Standard Oil), Harriman (railroads), Davison (J. P. Morgan), Weyerhaeuser (lumber), Pillsbury (flour milling) and Sloane (retail).
[^12]: John A. Kouwenhoven, *Partners in Banking: An Historical Portrait of a Great Private Bank, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., 1818-1968* (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1968), pp. 12 to 13, caption of the photograph of Prescott S. Bush. https://archive.org/details/partnersinbankinganhistoricalportraitofagreatprivateb
[^13]: Kouwenhoven, *Partners in Banking* (1968), partner table, pp. 231 to 235.
[^14]: Kouwenhoven, *Partners in Banking* (1968), p. 203. United States Senate, Connecticut timeline. https://www.senate.gov/states/CT/timeline.htm
[^15]: Antony C. Sutton, *America's Secret Establishment: An Introduction to the Order of Skull & Bones* (Trine Day, 2002), section on Brown Brothers, Harriman, list of partners initiated into The Order.
[^16]: Garry Wills, "Father Knows Best," *The New York Review of Books*, November 5, 1992, quoting Prescott Bush's oral-history interviews: "We [he and Woolley] were running the business, the day-to-day business, all the administrative decisions and the executive decisions. We were the ones that did it." https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1992/11/05/father-knows-best/
[^17]: Wills, "Father Knows Best," 1992: in 1946 Roland Harriman refused Bush's first request to seek a House seat, saying a House race was beneath a Brown Brothers Harriman partner and that it might be different for the Senate. https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1992/11/05/father-knows-best/
[^18]: Aris and Campbell, *The Guardian*, September 25, 2004: Walker "helped set him up in business in New York with Averill Harriman, the wealthy son of railroad magnate E H Harriman"; "One of the first jobs Walker gave Bush was to manage UBC"; "Bush was a founding member of the bank"; "The bank was set up by Harriman and Bush's father-in-law to provide a US bank for the Thyssens, Germany's most powerful industrial family." The History News Network reprint credits Ben Aris and Duncan Campbell. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar
[^19]: Aris and Campbell, *The Guardian*, September 25, 2004. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar
[^20]: Aris and Campbell, *The Guardian*, September 25, 2004: "Three sets of archives spell out Prescott Bush's involvement": the Harriman papers at the Library of Congress, vesting order number 248 at the National Archives, and the National Archives files on IG Farben. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar
[^21]: Aris and Campbell, *The Guardian*, September 25, 2004, on documents from the Harriman papers including a letter from Prescott Bush to the financial editor of the New York Journal American. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar
[^22]: Treasury Department memorandum, E. G. May to J. W. Pehle, August 18, 1941 (date line typed and endorsed in Pehle's hand "Aug 18, 1941"), "Re: Union Banking Corporation," ref. 9-151, declassified by NARA: incorporation August 4, 1924; wholly owned by the Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart, N.V.; Cornelis Lievense; Baron Heinrich Thyssen; gold purchases 1931-1933; $3,085,000 delivered to the Federal Reserve Bank June 15, 1934; fall 1938 safe deposit box with two million dollars in currency, later deposited with Brown Brothers Harriman. https://archive.org/details/BushDocuments0008b-LetterJ.W.PebleToMay. The Guardian's article of September 25, 2004 quotes the report as "of August 16 1941."
[^23]: Kris Millegan, *Fleshing Out Skull & Bones: Investigations into America's Most Powerful Secret Society* (Trine Day, 2003), reprint of the Woolley letter of January 14, 1941 and the White reply of May 13, 1941, pp. 214 to 217. https://archive.org/details/fleshing_out_skull_and_bones
[^24]: Aris and Campbell, *The Guardian*, September 25, 2004: "The trouble started on July 30 1942 when the New York Herald-Tribune ran an article entitled 'Hitler's Angel Has $3m in US Bank.'" https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar
[^25]: Aris and Campbell, *The Guardian*, September 25, 2004: "the incorporation documents, which list him as one of seven directors, show he owned one share in UBC worth $125." https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar
[^26]: Aris and Campbell, *The Guardian*, September 25, 2004, describing and quoting a memorandum from Homer Jones to the executive committee of the Alien Property Custodian from National Archives vesting files. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar
[^27]: Aris and Campbell, *The Guardian*, September 25, 2004, on John Loftus: his sources in "the banking and intelligence communities" and "the Bush family, through George Herbert Walker and Prescott, got $1.5m out of the involvement. There is, however, no paper trail to this sum." https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar
[^28]: Aris and Campbell, *The Guardian*, September 25, 2004: "The US government and the Bush family deny all the claims against them"; the Anti-Defamation League statement of 2003 that "These charges are untenable and politically motivated ... Prescott Bush was neither a Nazi nor a Nazi sympathiser." https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar
[^29]: Office of the Alien Property Custodian, Vesting Order No. 259, "All of the Capital Stock of Seamless Steel Equipment Corporation," executed October 28, 1942 (F.R. Doc. 42-13530, filed December 18, 1942), *Federal Register* 7 (December 19, 1942), pp. 10626-10627. https://archive.org/details/sim_federal-register-find_1942-12-19_7_248
[^30]: Office of the Alien Property Custodian, Vesting Order No. 261, "All of the Capital Stock of Holland-American Trading Corporation," executed October 28, 1942 (F.R. Doc. 42-13532, filed December 18, 1942), *Federal Register* 7 (December 19, 1942), p. 10627, holder table. https://archive.org/details/sim_federal-register-find_1942-12-19_7_248
[^31]: Aris and Campbell, *The Guardian*, September 25, 2004: "Having gone through the books of the bank, further seizures were made against two affiliates, the Holland-American Trading Corporation and the Seamless Steel Equipment Corporation." https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar
[^32]: *Silesian American Corporation v. Clark*, 332 U.S. 469, 68 S.Ct. 179 (reargued November 12, 1947; decided December 8, 1947), opinion of Justice Reed: Vesting Order No. 370 of November 17, 1942; Non Ferrum Gesellschaft, Zurich; Bergwerksgesellschaft Georg von Giesche's Erben; Chapter X debtor since July 30, 1941; Silesian Holding Company; "Judgment affirmed." https://law.resource.org/pub/us/case/reporter/US/332/332.US.469.6.html
[^33]: Aris and Campbell, *The Guardian*, September 25, 2004. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar
[^34]: Aris and Campbell, *The Guardian*, September 25, 2004: John Buchanan, "a Miami-based magazine journalist who started examining the files while working on a screenplay," published his findings in the *New Hampshire Gazette*. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar
[^35]: "Bush: Nazi Dealings Continued Until 1951," *New Hampshire Gazette*, Vol. 248, No. 3, November 7, 2003, "Federal Documents," as reprinted at raoul-wallenberg.eu. https://www.raoul-wallenberg.eu/2003
[^36]: Aris and Campbell, *The Guardian*, September 25, 2004: the CSSC passage, the Schweitzer quotation, and the reference to a *New York Times* article of March 18, 1934. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar
[^37]: Aris and Campbell, *The Guardian*, September 25, 2004, quoting the January 1933 letter from Knight Woolley to Averill Harriman. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar
[^38]: Garry Wills, "Father Knows Best," *The New York Review of Books*, November 5, 1992: "Prescott ended up on the boards of many firms he underwrote, including CBS"; the 1929 purchase of the Dresser Company of Bradford, Pennsylvania for four million dollars; Neil Mallon as chief executive; George H.W. Bush hired in 1948 by Mallon for a Dresser subsidiary. https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1992/11/05/father-knows-best/
[^39]: Darwin Payne, "Dresser Industries: A Legacy in Energy and Natural Resources," Handbook of Texas Online, Texas State Historical Association, section on the 1928 conversion and the directorship of Prescott Bush. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/dresser-industries
[^40]: Dresser Industries, Inc., entry in the International Directory of Company Histories (St. James Press), reproduced on Encyclopedia.com, section on the 1928 sale to W. A. Harriman and Company and Mallon's selection as president. https://encyclopedia.com/books/politics-and-business-magazines/dresser-industries-inc
[^41]: Darwin Payne, *Initiative in Energy: Dresser Industries, Inc., 1880-1978* (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1979), list of presidents. https://archive.org/details/initiativeinener00payn_0
[^42]: Bill Minutaglio, *First Son: George W. Bush and the Bush Family Dynasty* (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2001). https://archive.org/details/firstsongeorgewb0000minu
[^43]: Wills, "Father Knows Best," 1992, quoting Bush's oral history: "Averell put me on it"; "Prescott went onto the CBS board to watch what was being done with the investment." https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1992/11/05/father-knows-best/
[^44]: Hagley Museum and Library, Pennsylvania Water & Power Company presidential records (Acc. 2627), historical introduction. https://hagley.org/node/968
[^45]: Hagley Museum and Library, Acc. 2627, 1942 letter from Prescott S. Bush to John Abbet Walls, as quoted in the Hagley account. https://hagley.org/node/968
[^46]: Hagley Museum and Library, Acc. 2627, Pennsylvania Water & Power Company presidential records, 1905 to 1946. https://hagley.org/node/968
[^47]: Frank Coffey, *Always Home: 50 Years of the USO* (Washington: Brassey's, 1991): under national campaign chairman Thomas Dewey the USO "had raised over $16 million"; "In 1942 Dewey resigned"; appeal letter signed "Prescott S. Bush, National Campaign Chairman, United Service Organizations, Inc." with "Honorary Chairman John D. Rockefeller, Jr." https://archive.org/details/alwayshome50year00coff
[^48]: National War Fund, *Speakers Handbook* (issued as of August 13, 1945), p. 38, "Officers of National War Fund": president Winthrop W. Aldrich; vice presidents including Prescott S. Bush, New York; executive committee including Aldrich, Bush, Henry R. Luce and John D. Rockefeller, Jr.; Gerard Swope, chairman, Budget Committee. https://archive.org/details/SpeakersHandbook001
[^49]: Harold J. Seymour, *Design for Giving: The Story of the National War Fund, Inc., 1943-1947* (New York: Harper, 1947), on the selection of "Prescott S. Bush, Averill Harriman's banking partner" as "the sixth man" and "Prescott S. Bush, National Campaign Chairman." https://archive.org/details/designforgivings0000haro
[^50]: Allen W. Dulles to Prescott Bush, February 3, 1953, replying to Bush's letter of January 27, 1953, CIA-RDP80R01731R001600070003-9; Dulles to Bush, April 2, 1953, CIA-RDP80R01731R001600070139-9. https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP80R01731R001600070003-9 ; https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP80R01731R001600070139-9
[^51]: Central Intelligence Agency, Office of General Counsel, memorandum for the Director of Central Intelligence, "Senator Prescott Bush (R., Conn.)," signed by John S. Warner, Legislative Counsel, with Allen W. Dulles's approval, 1957, CIA-RDP80R01731R000200010068-9. https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP80R01731R000200010068-9
[^52]: Allen W. Dulles to Prescott Bush, September 8, 1959, on the New York Mirror column of Lee Mortimer, CIA-RDP80R01731R000100080046-7. https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP80R01731R000100080046-7
[^53]: C. P. Cabell, Acting Director, to Prescott Bush, June 21, 1960, CIA-RDP80B01676R000900030010-1. https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP80B01676R000900030010-1
[^54]: Allen W. Dulles to Prescott Bush, October 18, 1960, CIA-RDP80B01676R000900040026-3; Prescott Bush to Allen Dulles, October 25, 1960, on United States Senate stationery, marked "Personal," CIA-RDP80B01676R000900040027-2. https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP80B01676R000900040027-2
[^55]: John A. McCone to Prescott Bush, November 8, 1961 (Bogota, Colombia), CIA-RDP80B01676R000700190021-4; McCone to Bush, January 8, 1962, CIA-RDP80B01676R002800230007-2. https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP80B01676R000700190021-4
[^56]: "Central Intelligence Agency: A Guardian of the National Security," extension of remarks of Hon. Prescott Bush of Connecticut in the Senate of the United States, Wednesday, September 6, 1961, CIA-RDP70-00058R000200120158-2. https://archive.org/details/CIA-RDP70-00058R000200120158-2
[^57]: Wills, "Father Knows Best," 1992. https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1992/11/05/father-knows-best/
[^58]: New York University Sanger Papers Project, Newsletter No. 44 (Winter 2006/2007), "Bush Family Planning": Sanger "shared the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) masthead with the current president's grandfather ... Prescott S. Bush, who in 1947 served as the treasurer of Planned Parenthood's first nationwide fund-raising campaign." https://sanger.hosting.nyu.edu/articles/bush_family_planning/
[^59]: New York University Sanger Papers Project, Newsletter No. 44: Drew Pearson's broadcast "just days before the election"; "Bush lost by about a thousand votes in a state with a large Catholic population"; the family "vehemently denied that Prescott Bush had any association with the PPFA." https://sanger.hosting.nyu.edu/articles/bush_family_planning/
[^60]: George H. W. Bush, foreword to Phyllis Tilson Piotrow, *World Population Crisis: The United States Response* (1973), p. vii, as quoted in Newsletter No. 44. https://sanger.hosting.nyu.edu/articles/bush_family_planning/
[^61]: Wills, "Father Knows Best," 1992: "Late in the campaign, Drew Pearson wrote a column saying that Bush was a president of the Birth Control League. Actually, though he supported Planned Parenthood, Bush was not an officer of the Birth Control League." https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1992/11/05/father-knows-best/
[^62]: Wills, "Father Knows Best," 1992, quoting Bush: "I lost by a thousand votes to Bill Benton, when there were 862,000 votes cast"; Luce's interest in the seat; the 1952 contest with Clare Boothe Luce after McMahon's death. https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1992/11/05/father-knows-best/
[^63]: Wills, "Father Knows Best," 1992: the Ribicoff race, Bush's speech on Harriman, and Bush's appearance with McCarthy. https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1992/11/05/father-knows-best/
[^64]: Wills, "Father Knows Best," 1992: Adams, golf, Burning Tree dinner, Watkins suggestion, Banking and Currency Committee, 1960 platform subcommittee. https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1992/11/05/father-knows-best/
[^65]: *Congressional Record*, vol. 100, 83rd Congress, 2d session, Senate proceedings of December 2, 1954, roll-call vote on Senate Resolution 301: yeas 67, nays 22, "Bush" among the yeas. https://archive.org/details/sim_congressional-record-proceedings-and-debates_august-19-december-2-1954_100
[^66]: *Congressional Record*, vol. 100, December 1 and 2, 1954, remarks of Mr. Bush in support of the substitute motion: "No question of free speech is involved. Free speech does not mean unrestrained"; reference to his statement of December 1, "printed in the Congressional Record at page 16270." https://archive.org/details/sim_congressional-record-proceedings-and-debates_august-19-december-2-1954_100
[^67]: *Congressional Record*, vol. 102, 84th Congress, 2d session, May 29, 1956, vote "on agreeing to the amendment offered by the Senator from California [Mr. KNOWLAND]": yeas 41, nays 39, "Bush" among the nays. https://archive.org/details/sim_congressional-record-proceedings-and-debates_may-22-june-11-1956_102
[^68]: *Congressional Record*, vol. 102, 84th Congress, 2d session, June 26, 1956, vote "on agreeing to the conference report": yeas 89, nay 1 (Long), "Bush" among the yeas. https://archive.org/details/sim_congressional-record-proceedings-and-debates_june-12-29-1956_102


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