George H. W. Bush, president of the United States from 1989 to 1993, father of President George W. Bush, World War II veteran, and former CIA director died Friday, his family has announced.

He passed away in Houston, Texas, at 10:10 p.m. Central Time, according to his spokesman Jim McGrath, who said funeral arrangements "will be announced as soon as is practical." Bush was in failing health in recent years but was able to parachute on his 90th birthday. In the last week of his life, he was visited by former President Barack Obama, with whom he had developed warm relations.

A statement released from his office read: “George Herbert Walker Bush, World War II naval aviator, Texas oil pioneer, and 41st President of the United States of America, died on November 30, 2018. He was 94 and is survived by his five children and their spouses, 17 grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren, and two siblings. He was preceded in death by his wife of 73 years; his second child Pauline Robinson 'Robin' Bush; and his brothers Prescott and William or 'Bucky' Bush." Barbara Bush died in April at age 92.

Former President George W. Bush said in a statement: “Jeb, Neil, Marvin, Doro and I are saddened to announce that after 94 remarkable years, our dear Dad has died. George H.W. Bush was a man of the highest character and the best dad a son or daughter could ask for. The entire Bush family is deeply grateful for 41’s life and love, for the compassion of those who have cared and prayed for Dad, and for the condolences of our friends and fellow citizens."

George H. W. Bush was born in 1924 and served as the 41st Commander in Chief of the United States for one term — losing a re-election bid to Bill Clinton in 1992 — and two terms as the 43rd Vice President to President Ronald Reagan. He was the son of Senator Prescott Bush of Connecticut and became patriarch of his dynastic GOP family as the father of former President George W. Bush and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush.

During his remarkably varied political career, he served as a Texas congressman, Ambassador to the United Nations, Ambassador to China, and the Chairman of the Republican National Committee. As president, he commanded U.S. forces in the successful Gulf War made a number of policy strides like signing the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and the Immigration Act of 1990. He appointed two Supreme Court Justices and played an integral role in the creation of NAFTA. He presided over the end of the Cold War, the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the collapse of apartheid in South Africa.

Before entering politics, he served in the U.S. Navy soon after graduating from Phillips Academy, fighting in World War II. Three days shy of his 19th birthday, he was the youngest U.S. naval aviator.

At the age of 20 in September 1944, his plane was shot down in the Pacific. He was taking part in a bombing raids on Chichijima, a tiny island 700 miles south of Tokyo, and was the only airman who was able to evade capture by the Japanese. After the war, he married Barbara Pierce, who would become a popular first lady, and graduated from Yale University.

His long marriage was one of the most remarkable in modern politics. In a eulogy for her in April, Jeb Bush read a love letter from his father to his mother on one of their wedding anniversaries. “‘I’ve climbed perhaps the highest mountain in the world, but even that cannot hold a candle to being Barbara’s husband,'” Bush read from his father’s letter.

Bush oversaw a swift American victory in the Persian Gulf War, better known as Operation Desert Storm. The operation ejected Iraq from Kuwait, and his approval ratings reached 90 percent.

But for all his foreign policy success, Bush was viewed as uninterested and out of touch on domestic affairs. He broke his pledge not to raise taxes — “Read my lips, no new taxes!”— enraging conservatives. He lost much of his public support due to the 1990-91 recession, which was brief by historical standards but hit many middle-class voters especially hard.

A Connecticut native turned Texas oilman, Bush was the unsuccessful Republican nominee to represent the state in the U.S. Senate in 1964 and 1970, serving two terms as a congressman in between. Bush was the runner-up in the Republican presidential primaries in 1980, which set him up to become Reagan’s running mate.