Political appointee under Bush remembers the late president "He had a great sense of humor, he had a great sense of purpose." A political appointee in the administration of George H.W. Bush remembers the former president after his death. John Paty, once a White House staffer during the Reagan administration when Bush was vice president who later served in Bush's Department of Labor, cites the late president's accomplishments in the Gulf War and his diplomatic abilities during the fall of the Soviet Union.