By the time I first met Ed Nixon nearly two decades ago, he had long become used to being known primarily as the much younger (17 years) brother of the 37th president. He also took it quite well.
"On the way over, a cab driver said 'you know, you look and sound a lot like Richard Nixon,'" he once told me. "So, I said to him, 'That's because we had the same mother and father.'"
That was Edward Calvert Nixon in a nutshell. Upon learning he had died Wednesday evening at age 88, I recalled him as someone with fame thrust upon him but not taking it — or himself — too seriously.
Ed Nixon's primary interests were his work as a geologist ("I've got rocks in my head") and technology. He loved U.S. history and would pose questions such as "What do you know about William Z. Foster [onetime head of the U.S. Communist Party and its nominee for president in 1932]?"
And he wrote poetry, sometimes as a way of expressing his gratitude.
Nixon followed politics closely and occasionally did political missions for his candidate-brother. In 1967, as he was preparing to seek the Republican nomination for president the following year, Richard Nixon sent Ed on a tour of state party meetings to gauge his chances.
"I told Dick he was in good shape, but he should keep an eye on the new governor of California," Ed recalled, referring to Ronald Reagan. "I told him how he was electrifying the audiences when he spoke to state conventions. Dick shook his head and said, 'He's just a thespian!' I said I saw Reagan in action, and he looked pretty strong to me."
Nixon was a surrogate speaker for his brother in his 1972 re-election campaign. But unlike Jeb Bush or Robert Kennedy, he had no interest in a career in politics.
When Rep. Tom Pelly, R-Wash., announced his retirement in 1971, Nixon recalled, the president urged him to run for his open seat. But Ed told me he quickly dismissed the suggestion, saying "the only time I got a government paycheck was when I was in the Navy, and I have no desire to draw one again."
Born in 1930, Ed Nixon was the fifth son of Southern California grocer Frank Nixon and his wife Hannah. He was born after brother Arthur had died of tuberculosis at age 7 – when his three brothers were all teenagers. (Eldest brother Harold died of TB in 1933).
"I'd have to say Dick was more than a brother," Ed later wrote. "Because we never shared a boyhood, he assumed the role of assistant father and mentor . . . [H]e took his self-imposed responsibility seriously, always listening to his kid brother. I considered Dick to be outgoing with his ears, not his mouth.
"Through thought-provoking questions, he encouraged me to learn and solve problems. More than anyone else in the family, he could stand back from a contentious situation and give impartial and convincing advice."
In 1948, then-Rep. Richard Nixon, R-Calif., attended the Republican National Convention with father Frank and brother Ed, then a freshman at Duke University.
"One of the networks did a television interview with all of us, pointing out that Dad had a son who was a freshman in Congress and another a freshman in college," Ed recalled.
Always interested in technology, Ed Nixon was fascinated with the young medium of TV and how it broadcast live images nationwide. His father, he told me, "just grunted and said 'durndest thing I ever saw.'"
In his later years, Nixon opened his own worldwide consulting firm and did business in China. Doors were always open to the brother of the president who built "the open door" to China. His advice to young entrepreneurs was "learn Mandarin."
One of the last times I saw Ed Nixon, he told me of being at a Christmas party in Washington, D.C. the previous evening. Joining in a sing-a-long around a piano, Ed met another well-known sibling, Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass.
They had campaigned for their much-older brothers when they opposed each other for the presidency in 1960, but had never met. So, I asked, what did the younger Nixon think of the younger Kennedy?
"Nice guy," he replied. "And a pretty good singer."
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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