Bush Eulogizes Baldrige as ‘God’s Noblest Work’

Vice President George Bush today eulogized his long-time friend Malcolm Baldrige as “the noblest work of God” at the funeral for the commerce secretary, who died last week in a rodeo accident.

Hundreds of friends and dignitaries attended the funeral at a 171-year-old Congregational church.

“This honest man was indeed the noblest work of God,” said Bush of Baldrige, best remembered for his plain-speaking style and cowboy ways.

“I loved him,” the vice president said. “You might have thought he would have been too busy and too successful to give time to his community, to his country, but that was not so.”

“One of the finest things you can say about a cowboy is that he died with his boots on,” said Sen. Alan K. Simpson (R-Wyo.), who also delivered a eulogy. “That was Mac. And now we must give him up.”