Peter Roussel, a longtime Reagan-Bush insider who helped to win the confirmation of the first woman to the U.S. Supreme Court, died the day after Christmas at 81.
The cause was cancer, according to family and friends.
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As a master communicator for both former President Ronald Reagan and former President George H.W. Bush, Roussel was a familiar face in Washington and back home in Houston, where he started and ended his storied career of several decades.
He was introduced to a younger generation when he became a regular commentator on the lives of both George and Barbara Bush before and after their deaths, often seen on TV talking about the impact of the former first couple and his personal friends.
“Much of their life is centered around family,” he said of the Bushes in one appearance to discuss the opening of the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum. “And their family includes all of us, too. I think they feel that way,” he added.
Peter Roussel, a friend and former White House spokesman, attended Barbara Bush’s funeral today to pay respects https://t.co/8KrzGyj5lv #KPRC2 pic.twitter.com/3JZha6xFCX
— KPRC 2 Houston (@KPRC2) April 21, 2018
To make his point, Roussel told of how his mother once wrote to Bush to declare, “Peter thinks he’s a Bush, not a Roussel.” He added, “When you became associated with him, you did feel like you were part of that family.”
His family plans to have a celebration of life tomorrow in Houston that will be livestreamed.
Roussel got his start in politics when he joined a public relations firm in Houston in 1966. One of his first clients was the influential Republican Texas Sen. John Tower. He moved on to help Bush, then a congressman, as a spokesman and joined him on several of the former president’s career stops, including as chairman of the Republican National Committee.
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He then helped Bush ally James A. Baker, then chief of staff for President Gerald Ford, in the 1976 campaign. Later, he joined the Reagan White House as a spokesman and was tasked to help Judge Sandra Day O’Connor become the first woman on the court.
Before Bush became president, Roussel returned to Houston but remained close to the former president, acting as spokesman for the city’s host committee when Bush chose it to hold the 1990 Economic Summit. He also handled media relations for the dedication day ceremony of the Bush Library at Texas A&M University.
