While he claims Texas as his home state, the Connecticut-born Bush spent many of his formative adolescent years attending top-flight schools in the Northeast.

The scion of a political line, his grandfather a former Senator and his father in Congress, Bush attended elite East Coast schools like Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass. and Yale University, where he majored in history.

But academics were not his focus at Yale, as the younger Bush decided to focus more on intramural athletics and his role as president of Delta Kappa Epsilon, where he was a serious socialite who was well-remembered for his charisma and intangible charm.

Indeed, politics seemed to be the last thing on Bush's mind as he avoided the conflicts that were engulfing others in the 1960s, including student protests against the Vietnam War.

With little career direction after graduating from Yale in 1968, Bush enlisted in the Texas Air National Guard, which he served in for five years.

After this brief military stint, Bush entered what he has referred to as the "nomadic years" of his life.

After moving to a singles complex in Houston, Bush continued living the collegiate high life while keeping sporadic employment and occasionally working on his father's congressional campaigns.

Bush eventually returned to the Ivy League in 1972, this time enrolling in Harvard Business School, where he earned his MBA.