Eisenhower returned home to a hero's welcome. He was quickly named Army Chief of Staff and served in that capacity until 1948, when he assumed the post of President of Columbia University. He was only two years in the position but had time to write a memoir, Crusade in Europe, and to take up oil painting. (He would turn to this hobby to help him relax later in life, completed more than 250 oil paintings.)

It was after World War II that Eisenhower developed a liking for golf. He famously played year-round, having his golf balls painted black in winter so he could see them in the snow. He had a small golf facility at the presidential retreat, which he renamed Camp David, after his father.

Eisenhower left Columbia in 1950 to take up the position of Supreme Commander of the newly created North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). He served two years and then returned to Columbia.

The Korean War had begun in 1950. In the midst of that war, President Harry Truman had opted not to run for re-election. The Democratic Party that year nominated as its presidential candidate Illinois Gov. Adlai Stevenson. The Republican Party nominated Eisenhower.

The war hero Eisenhower won the presidency in a landslide. Among the momentous events that occurred during his first term in office were these:

• The Korean War ended with a truce, in 1953.
• At the United Nations General Assembly, he delivered the "Atoms for Peace" speech, a famous call for the nations of the world that had developed atomic energy to use that technology in peaceful ways.
• The U.S. Supreme Court handed down the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, declaring school segregation unconstitutional
• The Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 authorized the Interstate Highway System, which Eisenhower championed.

He was still popular four years later and won re-election, again defeating Stevenson, despite suffering a heart attack the year before. Among the momentous events that occurred during his second term in office were these:

• He assumed control of the Arkansas National Guard and deployed the 101st Airborne Division to protect nine African-American students as they went to school at Little Rock's Central High School.
• In 1958, he signed into law the bill that created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
• Alaska and Hawaii became states, in 1959. They were the 49th and 50th states to join the Union.
• Just before leaving office, he gave a speech in which he warned against the dangers of the "military-industrial complex."

He retired from public life at the end of his second term, returning to his farm in Gettysburg, Penn. He died there on March 28, 1969. He and his wife, Mamie, had two children, Doud and John. The older boy died of scarlet fever in 1921; John, who had graduated from West Point on D-Day, survived his father.

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