My long-standing passion for presidential history and biography was fostered by Rachel M. Kochmann, who, with her husband Clancy took motor trips around the U.S. to visit presidential places.

Kochmann authored “Presidents: Birthplaces, Homes and Burial Sites” in 1976; I bought the revised Ninth Edition — dated 1994 — perhaps at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library. It’s sort of a scrapbook from a history buff who obviously relished her pursuit.

Every site — perhaps I’ve visited half of those in the book — is as different as every president. George Herbert Walker Bush’s presidential library at Texas A&M was the only place where I received a thank-you note from the former president on my way out the door. How typical was that for George Bush?

I keep that machine-written note, received March 3, 2000, in my copy of Kochmann’s volume. The book includes basic information about the 41^st president and a few scribbled notes from me.

I visited alone, I wrote. I was at A&M on business. I also visited alone the private home where Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, and I remember gazing over miles of marsh from the front yard toward Boston. The home was in some disrepair, I noted on July 19, 1998, a Sunday morning. Too bad, I thought: Bush, who had lived there only a year, deserved better than that.

What newspaper reporters don’t earn in dollars they reap in memories. I have a few of George Bush and I treasure them.

The first came in the autumn of 1979. Early contenders for the Republican and Democratic nominations for president passed through Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where I was a graduate student. I assigned my media writing students to cover all of the candidates, including Bush, whose resume, I assured them, was impressive.

More impressive was Bush himself: lean, vigorous at 55, engaging. He obviously liked students and they seemed to like him, too, as he first spoke, then took a long list of questions in a student center auditorium.

He lingered some, too, after classes changed and students stayed to talk. It wasn’t required. But he shook every hand, answered every question patiently, exchanged smiles and seemed in no hurry to leave. He was willing to give his time; he liked people and they liked him back. If every American had met George Bush, one on one, during that campaign, he might have won the nomination. He was just that genuine.

More than a decade later I traveled to Birmingham, Alabama to watch Bush, the candidate campaigning for re-election. The crowd was big and the candidate himself was a million miles away. Lee Greenwood sang “God Bless the USA,” said to be a Bush favorite, but the president sounded weary and the event seemed terribly scripted. For the first time in that election, I sensed he was in trouble.

My last in-person sighting came years later, at the Shell Houston Open, somewhere near the first green at what was then the Redstone Golf Club. I was there to follow Phil Mickelson, but got an extra treat when the former president and first lady sped past in a souped-up, tram-style vehicle. The crowds parted and applauded loudly when they saw the former first couple drive past, smiling widely and waving enthusiastically. That was how it seemed with Bush; the closer you got, the more you liked him. That was a heckuva guy.

The letter I’ve kept seems true to form for the former president. He talked not at all about his own achievements but solely about his faith in God and love of family. It sounded like the man known to have written thousands of personal notes to people, usually expressing thanks or offering encouragement.

He offered a line about fostering friendships, too, in my letter and said, “Barbara and I have been blessed throughout our lives with wonderful friends who have supported us through thick and thin.” To have a friend, you’ve got to be a friend, and I think “41” knew a lot about that.

“Thanks again for spending time in our Library,” the note concluded. “Barbara and I send our best wishes to you and yours.”

Back at you, sir. God bless you. And thanks.

Ken Stickney is editor of The Port Arthur News.