Death of Oilman’s Wife Was Crucial Turning Point : Bush-Mosbacher Ties Forged by Tragedy

Some friendships between men are forged on the playing fields of youth; others on the battlefields of war. The longstanding bond between President-elect George Bush and Robert A. Mosbacher, the wealthy Texas oilman he named Tuesday to become his commerce secretary, was tempered in the crucible of personal tragedy.

Shortly before Bush’s 1970 Texas campaign in which he just failed to win a Senate seat, Mosbacher’s first wife died of leukemia. Bush helped Mosbacher recover from his loss, recalls longtime Bush political adviser Sally McKenzie, “by saying: ‘Hey, I need your help and you need to get busy.’ They were good personal friends from before but that tragedy brought them together for life.”

While Mosbacher already was involved in Bush’s campaign at the time of his wife’s death, the incident also has remarkable parallels to Bush’s role in helping another close friend and Cabinet member, Secretary of State-designate James A. Baker III, who was grieving over his own wife’s death from cancer at almost the same time.

“That period started the political life for Bob Mosbacher and Jim Baker, and look where they are today,” McKenzie added. “It was a crucial turning point for all three men.”

It is because of Mosbacher’s exceptionally close ties with Bush that friends believe he will perform a far more important role in the new Administration than past heads of the Commerce Department.

Although Commerce traditionally has been a second-tier position in the Cabinet, “Bob Mosbacher will take a back seat to nobody,” said Michel T. Halbouty, a Houston oilman close to both Bush and Mosbacher. “He will be able to see the President whenever he wants. I’m sure that George Bush will continue to rely on his experience and judgment.”

Moved to Oil Fields

Like Bush, Mosbacher, 61, was born to a well-to-do family in the Northeast and moved to the oil fields of Texas in the late 1940s to make his own fortune.

He and Bush gravitated to each other in the 1950s, friends say, in large part because their background and experiences were so similar. Trim, youthful-looking and well-tailored, Mosbacher is likely to be one of a handful of old friends that Bush will turn to on a wide range of issues.

“You will be hard-pressed to find three more loyal people in this Cabinet than Dad, (Treasury Secretary) Nick Brady and Jim Baker,” said Mosbacher’s son, Rob. “The vice president knows he can depend on all of them because of what they have been through together. He knows that none of them is going to pull any punches.”

Top GOP Fund-Raiser

As Bush’s finance chairman, Mosbacher played a crucial part in this year’s election victory. Considered perhaps the Republican Party’s top fund-raiser after a similar stint for President Gerald R. Ford’s 1976 campaign and, as Bush’s chief fund-raiser in his 1980 primary campaign, Mosbacher amassed more than $75 million for Bush and the GOP in the last two years.

With his close ties to Bush, Mosbacher should have little trouble emerging as a key member of the team of top economic policy-makers that includes the heads of the Treasury, the State Department, the Office and Management and Budget and two other officials Bush named Tuesday, top trade negotiator Carla Anderson Hills and White House chief economic adviser Michael J. Boskin.

When asked about potential conflicts with Hills, Mosbacher told reporters: “I don’t see them as fights. . . . I see it as a joint effort and a team effort, not any fight.”

During his confirmation hearings next month, Mosbacher is likely to face questioning over his oil investments in the Philippines in the mid-1970s. Some local companies that participated in offshore drilling ventures with Mosbacher’s family-owned oil firm are alleged to have been fronts for deposed President Ferdinand E. Marcos. Mosbacher later lost his oil concessions, receiving only partial compensation from Manila, and there is no firm evidence that Mosbacher was aware of any improprieties.

Involved in more than a dozen charitable and professional organizations, Mosbacher displays his competitive instincts most proudly in sailing races around the world. His other athletic skills are not as well-developed, friends say.

“I think one reason George Bush likes Bob is that he can beat him at tennis,” jokes Jack Bowen, chairman of Transco Energy Co. in Houston. “I’d call him a C-minus tennis player, and his golf is even worse. But he’s a personable guy of the highest integrity, so we don’t hold that against him.”

Perhaps the greatest challenge facing Mosbacher will be getting accustomed to the bright spotlight of Washington after decades of relative obscurity running his privately held oil company. “The only reason he’s willing to enter the Washington fishbowl is because of his devotion to George Bush,” says Rob Mosbacher. “I’m sure there are going to be days when he regrets it.”