#RossPerot Is the Foundation of a Wing of Our Fortress

That's just one of the thousands(?) of videos in memory of the self-made businessman.

Born in 1930 in Texarkana, Texas, to Lula May (nèe Ray) & Gabriel Ross Perot (a commodity broker specializing in cotton contracts, with an ancestor who immigrated to French Louisiana in the 1740s), Henry Ray Perot attended a private school called Patty Hill & graduated from Texas High School (Texarkana) in 1947 (where he changed his middle name to "Ross" to honor his father and/or -his brother Gabriel Ross Jr. who died at an early age).

Ross Perot's Wikipedia-page tells us that & -a whole lot more, including his acheivement of the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award in the Boy Scouts of America, his education at Texarkana Junior College, -at the United States Naval Academy (where he helped establish its honor system), his sales-work at IBM after his Naval career, followed by his founding of Electronic Data System (which GM bought after EDS computerized Medicare-records for the U.S. government) and Perot Systems Corporation (bought by Dell).

And he is/was cherished by his wife Margot née Birmingham, his children Ross Jr., Suzanne, Nancy, Carolyn & Katherine, and his 19 grandchildren.

(Yes, I skipped his whole 'illustrious political career' (which you can read about at the Wiki-link above). I was going to focus on his Presidential 'bids,' but I think the American spirit is better-shown in his business-practice & family-life—although the Wikipedia page does go on to list his ...

Honors and achievements

• In 1986, Perot became only the third American to receive the Winston Churchill Award for his efforts on behalf of American POWs in Vietnam in the 1960s and for organizing the rescue of two EDS employees from a prison in Iran.^[6][70]

• In 1986, Perot received the S. Roger Horchow Award for Greatest Public Service by a Private Citizen, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards.^[71]

• Perot was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 1988.^[72]

• On April 22, 2009, Ross Perot was made an honorary Green Beret at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.^[73]

• In May 2009, he was appointed an honorary chairman of the OSS Society.^[74]

• On September 18, 2009, the Texarkana Independent School District named him (1947 graduate of Texas High School) as a 2009 Distinguished Alumnus.^[75]

• On October 15, 2009, the United States Military Academy at West Point awarded him with the distinguished Sylvanus Thayer Award.^[76]

• On April 20, 2010, Perot was presented with the Distinguished Leadership Award from the Command and General Staff College Foundation, Inc., Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.^[77]

• In honor of Perot's 80th birthday, the bridge connecting Walton and University drives in Texarkana, Texas, was named the H. Ross Perot Bridge.^[78]

• On October 2, 2010, Perot was given the William J. Donovan Award from the OSS Society at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington, D.C. He is the 26th recipient of the award.^[79]

• In September 2011, Perot accepted the Army Heritage Center Foundation's Boots on the Ground Award.^[80]

• On October 28, 2011, the Perot Museum of Nature and Science announced it was naming a new species of the dinosaur genus Pachyrhinosaurus after the Perot family. The new species is named Pachyrhinosaurus perotorum.^[81]

Electoral history1992 United States presidential election ^[82]

• Bill Clinton/Al Gore (D) – 44,909,806 (43.0%) and 370 electoral votes (32 states and D.C. carried)

• George H. W. Bush/Dan Quayle (R) (Inc.) – 39,104,550 (37.4%) and 168 electoral votes (18 states carried)

• Ross Perot/James Stockdale (I) – 19,743,821 (18.9%) and 0 electoral votes

• Andre Marrou/Nancy Lord (L) – 290,087 (0.3%) and 0 electoral votes

1996 United States presidential election ^[83]

• Bill Clinton/Al Gore (D) (Inc.) – 47,400,125 (49.2%) and 379 electoral votes (31 states and D.C. carried)

• Bob Dole/Jack Kemp (R) – 39,198,755 (40.7%) and 159 electoral votes (19 states carried)

• Ross Perot/Pat Choate (Ref.) – 8,085,402 (8.4%) and 0 electoral votes