Richard Nixon - biography

Richard Nixon biography

37th president of the United States. Nixon served as vice-president under Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1952 to 1960. He was the unsuccessful Republican candidate for presidency in 1960. He was elected president in 1968 over Democrat Hubert H. Humphrey and reelected in 1972 over Democrat George S. McGovern. Nixon resigned from presidency on Aug. 9, 1974, because of his revealed involvement in the so-called Watergate scandal.

Early life
Nixon was born Jan. 9, 1913, on a lemon farm in Yorba Linda, CA, to Francis A. Nixon and Hannah Milhous Nixon. He was second from five children, all of whom were boys. When he was nine years old, the family moved to Whittier, CA, where he worked after school in his father’s combination grocery store and gasoline station. Nixon ranked second in the 1934 class of Whittier Collage, where he was student body president and a star debater. He graduated third in the 1937 class of Duke University’s School of Law, Durham, N.C., where he was president of the Student Bar Association and a member of the Order of Coif, a national honorary law fraternity. Nixon became a partner in Whittier’s oldest law firm, Wingert and Bewley, specializing in taxes and trial work. He became, at the age of 26, the youngest trustee of Whittier Collage. He met his future wife, Thelma Catherine Patricia “Pat” Ryan while both were trying out for an amateur play and couple was married June 21, 1940. They became parents of two daughters: Patricia and Julie. After World War II began Nixon went to work in the Office of Price Administration in Washington, D.C. In August 1942 he entered the Navy as a lieutenant. He spend most of his service as an aviation ground officer in the Pacific and was discharged as a lieutenant commander in 1946.