Name: Bush bids farewell to the 'son of Wyoming' Dick Cheney | REUTERS
Uploaded: 2025-11-21T17:10:06.000Z
Duration: 10 min 15 s
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Mary and all the Cheney family, honored guests, ladies and gentlemen, I appreciate this chance to say a few words about a man I was proud to call my vice president and my friend.

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Though not a happy assignment, I do consider it an easy one because there was so much to like and admire about Dick Cheney.

Dick was a stoical man, and I doubt he left his life with any complaints.

And about the time given to him or its end, he was also a grateful man.

Grateful above all for three loyal, loving women who shared in his journey.

As I quickly discovered in 2000, when you choose one Cheney, you get four.

His busy and purposeful life was an adventure they experienced together.

In a family so close, you dread the day when the circle is broken.

Lynn and the girls, Heather, Phil and all the grandchildren.

He sure loved you all, and he was proud of his family.

I hope it helps to know that many people in this country share your sense of loss, and

25 years ago, I had a big choice to make, a big job to fill.

So I enlisted the help of a distinguished former White House chief of staff and Secretary of Defense to lead my search for running mate.

Dick Cheney and I went through the files, name by name.

We talked over the various qualities I was looking for in a vice president.

Preparedness, mature judgment, rectitude, and loyalty.

Above all, I wanted someone with the ability to step into the presidency without getting distracted by the ambition to seek it.

After weeks of these meetings, I began to have a thought I could not shake.

I realized the best choice for the Vice President was the man sitting right in front of me.

And I told him that at such a moment, most in his position would have jumped at the chance.

But Dick stayed detached, and he analyzed it before I made my decision.

He insisted on giving me a complete rundown of all the reasons I should not choose him.

He also heard one of my top advisors was against the choice.

As he did so, he sat there, unfazed and expressionless.

I remember my dad's words when I told him what I was planning.

He said, son, you couldn't pick a better man.

The way this all unfolded followed a pattern.

Summing up his career a few years ago, he said, a few breaks came my way, and

In a life that's taken me far to more places than I ever expected, that was Dick's typically understated version of events.

Without need of calculation or self promotion.

His talent and restraint exceeded his ego.

Even before the Cheney name reached the national stage, people always saw something in the man.

One of the first to really notice was Lynn Vincent.

She can recall a time in their college years when Dick, as he freely admitted, lacked direction and needed some straightening out.

That was Lynn's kind of project and it did not take her long.

He said many times that his life would have turned out a whole lot different if he had never met her.

It may explain how in just over a decade, a guy can go from laying transmission lines outside Cheyenne to serving as Chief of staff or the President of the United States.

In Dick's telling, those years working for Gerald Ford were special and informative.

In his memoir, President Ford described Dick's steadiness, his low key style and his absolute loyalty.

These are not traits easy to come by in Washington.

Being calm, reticent, undramatic and untrustworthy are not everyone's formula for success in politics.

But they were the Cheyney way and they worked.

I'm reminded of a renowned senator who once gave this advice to a junior colleague.

Perhaps, he said, you could occasionally allow yourself the luxury of an unexpressed thought.

Dick Cheney was like that, sparing and measured with words in a profession that attracts talkers.

And when he did speak up, conveying thoughts in that even tone of voice, that orderly, unexcinable manner, you knew you were getting the best of a highly disciplined mind.

No colleague, no legislator, no foreign leader who ever met Dick Cheney ever doubted that they were dealing with a serious man.

Of course, not every political counselor is cut out to be a political candidate.

But Dick Cheney put himself to the test and never lost an election.

In fact, it happens that he and I both ran for Congress in 1978.

And let me just say the Republican wave didn't reach West Texas that year.

He told me a few times what it's like to campaign in Wyoming.

Lots of small gatherings and long drives.

It's easy to imagine the impression that young Dick Cheney made when he was asking for the vote.

I wish more Americans got to know Dick Cheney the way the folks in Casper, Cody and Laramie got to know him.

Seeing everyone as an equal, a gentleman by nature, and a true man of the West.

Dick was funny and easygoing in a style that his public image never caught up with.

Though we can all agree he wasn't your standard issue politician.

If any voters came hoping for a kind word and a hug, they'd have to settle for the kind word.

But you can't question the appeal of the only person from America's Mountain west ever elected to national office.

On that score, history should record that I chose my vice president not once, but twice.

In 2004, he offered to step aside in case I wanted to replace him.

after four years of seeing how he treated people, how he carried responsibility, how he handled pressure and took the hits, I arrived back at the conclusion that they do not come any better than Dick Cheney.

Colleagues from every chapter of his career will tell you that he lifted the standards of those around him just by being who he was.

In our years in office together, on the quiet days and on the hardest ones, he was everything a president should expect in his second in command.

In moments of testing, Dick Cheney was the model of concentration, alertness, and composure.

His time produced an old breed of public servant, defined by their substance and character.

This was a vice president totally devoted to protecting the United States and its interests.

There was never any agenda or angle beyond that.

You did not know Dick Cheney unless you understood his greatest concerns and ambitions were for his country across 40 years of service.

Across 40 years, his service was consistent, faithful and noble.

All in all, not a bad showing for a career and a life, especially when you consider his sheer physical endurance.

Rayner pointed out, he became an authority on cardiovascular disease and a marvel at what resourceful doctors and one very determined patient can accomplish.

Dick had faced down fears and hardships, but he really didn't speak about him.

The reward was more of a life than he ever expected, including seven grandchildren to complete the picture.

One of them, Richard, even asked his grandfather to attend kindergarten class for a show and tell.

As a matter of fact, the teacher told Dick that that was the most exciting show and tell since the morning a little girl brought her cow to class.

That might have been amongst Dick's last moments in the spotlight.