RICHARD NIXON: 1913-1994 : San Clemente and Whittier Will Hold Nixon Memorials : Tributes: Museum will have an exhibit of mementos from his career; college will host service.

Admirers of Richard Nixon who want to avoid the crowds in Yorba Linda can attend one of two smaller memorial gatherings being held today in San Clemente and Whittier, two other Southern California communities that claim a special affection for the former President.

In San Clemente, the site of Nixon’s former Western White House, a local museum will hold an exhibit of mementos from his long political career.

The public also is invited to attend the Whittier College Nixon Hometown Memorial at 12:30 p.m. on the campus that was Nixon’s alma mater. Nixon’s younger brother Edward, 63, a cousin and four of the former President’s Whittier College classmates who had remained his close friends are among those scheduled to offer eulogies.

“We want this to be a very warm, heartfelt memorial and not a political event,” said college spokeswoman Leslie Baer-Brown. She said the college rejected offers from several congressmen who wanted to speak at the memorial, but didn’t know Nixon personally.

The invocation at the memorial will be given by T. Eugene Coffin, former pastor of East Whittier Friends Church where Nixon was a member.

Although Nixon was born in Yorba Linda, his family moved to Whittier when he was nine years old and he grew up in the town, attending Whittier High School and working after school in his parents’ grocery store. After graduating from high school, he enrolled at Whittier College, where his mother and several aunts and uncles had gone before him.

At Whittier College, Nixon was a history major, served as student body president, played football, co-founded a fraternal society, wrote for the school newspaper and was an activist who worked to lift bans the Quaker institution had on dancing and smoking.

“The Whittier College family has always claimed him,” said Marygene Wright, Nixon’s cousin, who will be among a number of Nixon relatives attending the Whittier College memorial. Clint Harris, a classmate of the former President, said that Nixon had attended his 25th, 45th and 50th class reunions.

“He never lost his love for his old friends and for the little college he went to,” said Harris, recalling that Nixon served many years on the Whittier College Board of Trustees and was a generous financial supporter of the college.

Baer-Brown said college officials originally intended to hold a private ceremony, but changed their minds when they were “flooded with calls starting the day after he died from people who wanted to participate in some sort of memorial. Some were upset that the (funeral) service at the (Nixon Library) was going to be private.”

If skies are clear, Baer-Brown said, the memorial will be held at the college’s 3,000-seat Amphitheater. But if it rains, she said, equal seating will be offered at the gymnasium, called the Graham Activities Center.

Those who attend the college memorial event also will have a rare opportunity to view a collection of gifts the Nixons received from people around the world and then donated to the college. The collection is kept in the Nixon Room of the Bell Wardman Library. The room usually is closed to the public for security reasons, Baer-Brown said. But today, she said, the display will be open between 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. and between 1:30 and 3 p.m.

In San Clemente, the seaside town where Nixon vacationed during his presidency and recuperated after the Watergate scandal, the local historic society is planning a special show of Nixon memorabilia today at Casa Romantica. The Spanish-style villa at 415 Avenida Granada was the home of the city’s founder, Ole Hansen.

San Clemente Historic Society President Dorothy Fuller said the Nixon artifacts are exhibited on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 1 and 4 p.m. But this week, the museum will be specially decorated with bouquets, including yellow roses that were Pat Nixon’s favorites. She also said refreshments will be offered and docents will greet guests and ask them to sign the visitors’ book that will be marked to record those who came to remember the former President.

Fuller said that at first members of the historic society had planned to arrange car pools to take San Clemente residents to today’s memorial ceremonies at the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace in Yorba Linda.

“But when we found out we could not park any closer than about four blocks from the library and that we would have to stand at a distance from the activities where we wouldn’t be able to see anything, we decided to double our efforts to invite people to our museum,” she said.