While it’s best known for its deep-rooted political links, the Bush family has actually made its $400 million fortune in a number of different ways over the decades.
As well as producing two American presidents – namely George W Bush and his father George H W Bush, who served as the 43rd and 41st presidents of the United States respectively – the clan has dabbled in everything from oil and fashion to banking and steel over the decades.
The Bush family’s US roots can be traced all the way back to the arrival of the English ship Mayflower, which arrived in America in 1620.
However, the dynasty’s wealth originated in the 19th century with Samuel Prescott Bush (1863-1948), George W’s great-grandfather.
Starting out as a railroad apprentice, the ambitious go-getter eventually became president of Buckeye Steel Castings, a major corporation that supplied steel parts to the booming railroad industry.
Regarded as one of the great industrialists of his day, Samuel forged powerful connections with the Rockefellers and other prominent American families.
He would go on to co-found the US Chamber of Commerce and was an advisor to President Herbert Hoover.
Samuel’s eldest son, Prescott Sheldon Bush (1895-1972, shown here), married into the moneyed Walker family and helped further expand the Bush fortune through his successful investment banking career. Prescott was elected to the US Senate in 1952.
The family was propelled into the big time in terms of both money and politics by Prescott’s second son, George Herbert Walker Bush (1924-2018).
Supported by his father’s wealth and powerful contacts, the shrewd George racked up a multimillion-dollar fortune in the Texan oil industry before embarking on his political career in the early 1960s.
George Sr served as a Republican congressman, UN ambassador, CIA director, and US vice president before he was voted in as America’s 41st president in 1989. He had an estimated net worth of $25 million at the time of his death in 2018.
Today, the Bush family (shown here in 2005) has a total fortune that’s worth around $400 million according to Celebrity Net Worth.
The family’s wealth can largely be attributed to the steel, banking, and oil industries. In recent years, however, various members of the clan have branched out into other fields, including entertainment, publishing, and tech.
The sixth child of George H W Bush and his wife Barbara, Dorothy (“Doro”) Bush Koch is an author, literacy campaigner, charity fundraiser, wellness guru, and self-styled “kindness champion.”
She also co-founded BB&R Consulting with Tricia Reilly Koch around 20 years ago.
Doro is best known for penning the 2006 biography My Father, My President: A Personal Account of the Life of George H. W. Bush, which reached the New York Times’ Best Seller list.
Wealth-wise, internet guesses peg Doro’s net worth at up to $5 million. However, it could well be in excess of that figure judging by her impressive résumé and lucrative public speaking gigs.
Doro’s nephew, George Prescott Bush, has followed in the footsteps of his father Jeb and various other family members by entering public life.
With a background in law and a stint in the US Navy already under his belt, George was elected Texas Land Commissioner in 2014 and re-elected in 2018.
In 2021, the Bush scion threw his hat into the ring to become the Lone Star State’s attorney general.
