A ceremony marking the 113th anniversary of the birth of Richard M. Nixon is scheduled for Friday at the Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library and Museum.
The ceremony will begin at 11 a.m. with the laying of a wreath sent by President Donald Trump at the memorials of the 37th president and his wife Pat.
The keynote speaker will be Ken Khachigian, a speechwriter for Nixon and Ronald Reagan during their presidencies.
Khachigian will sign copies of his memoir, “Behind Closed Doors,” following the program. It is billed as bringing “readers behind the scenes as his bosses navigated crises, confronted opponents and staked their legacies.” It includes excerpts from his diaries, secret memos, and contemporaneous notes
Capt. Kyle A. Caldwell, commanding officer, Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach, is also set to speak.
Navy Band Southwest will perform. There will be a formal presentation of the colors by the Blue Eagles Honor Guard.
Admission will be free at the library on Friday. It will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Nixon served on active duty in the Navy during World War II, rising to the rank of lieutenant commander. He was released from active duty in 1946, and promoted to commander in the Naval Reserve in 1953. He retired from the Naval Reserve in 1966.
Nixon was born in a house built by his father from a mail-order construction kit. It still stands on the library’s grounds in Yorba Linda which was his family’s lemon ranch when Nixon was born.