Yoshihiro Tsurumi - President Bush

President Bush

Tsurumi taught U.S. President George W. Bush "Economics EAM" (Environmental Analysis for Management), a required two-semester class from the fall of 1973 to the spring of 1974, during Bush's first year as an MBA student at Harvard's business school.

Shortly before the 2004 U.S. presidential election, Tsurumi appeared on various media outlets (such as CNN and Air America) and reported remembering Bush telling him that family friends had helped get him into the Texas Air National Guard. He also criticized Bush's preparedness for class and political views, telling CNN that teachers remember their best and worst students and that 'Bush was in the latter group'.

"Lazy. He didn't come to my class prepared," Tsurumi told CNN. "He did very badly ... Somehow I found him totally devoid of compassion, social responsibility, and good study discipline. What I remember most about him was all the kind of flippant statements that he made inside of classroom as well as outside."

Tsurumi has continued to be a persistent and vocal critic of the President's politics and policies.