here, his remarkable career as a member of congress at the cia, at the u.n., in china representing the united states, vice president, president, his family life and it s all right here. and the fact that that is the place where he and his wife wanted to have their final resting place is really telling and is really special because for people who maybe didn t know a lot about him because he was so humble in life and maybe learned about it and want to come here to pay their respects, they re also going to be able to learn so much in this building. as john was saying, there s a private burial plot that the president used to fish in occasion anly, right off of their apartment. they stayed at the apartment many times while they were here. it really is a home away from hem for them, other than
bush family burial plot at college station at the bush presidential library. with us nbc s gabe gutierrez in houston who has been following these days throughout, and gabe, spectacularly beautiful. there has to be some level here of appreciation of how this has gone over these last six days, how there s been such an outpouring of love for this late president. what are you expecting to see inside the service today, and what have you seen on the ground there? reporter: hi, chris. over the last few days we have seen president george herbert walker bush remembered as a statesman, as a world leader. today we re expecting a bit of a hometown feel. as you mentioned his adopted hometown of houston, him remembered as a father and a neighbor. we are expecting a very powerful yule zbeulogy from his good fri baker, former secretary of
time. we walked together out through the back through the pathway, and coming up to what is now the burial plot. and back then they were just building it. i ll never forget it. he s looking around the trees. it was a beautiful, beautiful day. and he says isn t this just marvelous in the tone that only george bush could do. and i was a young man back then. i m thinking to myself, is he crazy? you know, looking at this grave site, and then i turned around and said mr. president, not on my watch. it s not time yet. you got a long time with us. and we had a lot of laughs. that was him. he was just as your other guests said, just a humble, graceful man, and i call him the jimmy stuart, the great actor of the presidency. he was just it was a perfect life. michael, he will be laid to rest there with his wife of 73
probably cost him a second term in the white house. he realized it was the best thing to do for the united states of america and for the future economy. that s the kind of person that he was. never too big to talk to anybody and everybody on staff. the people cleaning his office were as important to him as his staff aides who were dealing with the legislative agenda. kind and gentle and honest and an able president. i think he ll go down as one of the best that we ve seen in recent times. robert, as i understand it, you were once with president bush when he visited what will now be his burial plot. tell us about that moment. well, it was surreal back then. it was right after the opening of the library, and if you go behind the library there s a pond. and beyond the pond is a pathway. and so one day he decided he wanted to take a walk with sadie, their new dog at the