Nixon Leaves Office, This Time to Erase 2 1/2-Hour Trip

--Richard M. Nixon has a problem common to commuters. It takes him too long to get to and from his office--up to 2 1/2 hours each way, said his chief aide, John Taylor. So, the former President is vacating his Federal Plaza office in Manhattan and will instead work in a 3,800-square-foot suite in a building within walking distance of his Saddle River, N.J., estate. Nixon, 75, wanted to find a new office at the same or less rent than it would have cost to stay at his present office, where rent was projected at $137,600 a year, Taylor said. However, taxpayers will have to pay $137,800 a year for Nixon’s suite in Woodcliff Lake, N.J., half a mile from his home. Taylor said the high rent was nowhere near the estimated $10 million Nixon has saved taxpayers by giving up Secret Service protection in 1985. Perillo Tours manager Stephen Perillo said his employees are excited about Nixon’s move to their building. “These kids are 22, 25 years old. . . . For them, he’s a part of history,” Perillo said. Nixon resigned as President on Aug. 9, 1974.

--A conflict over nudism stretched a Danbury, Conn., woman’s hospitality to the breaking point, so “The Graduate” author Charles Webb and his ex-wife, Fred, have moved out of the woman’s home, Webb said. Marcelle Hall recently invited the couple to stay in her home after reading that they had little money and no permanent residence. “It’s not fair to say she threw us out,” Webb said. “There was just a difference of opinion. . . . We didn’t realize nudism was such an upsetting thing, compared to other things that go on in the world.” Over the years, Webb has said, his hatred of materialism led him to give away two houses. Webb said he is planning to write a sequel to “The Graduate.”

--Former Colorado Gov. John A. Love and his wife, Ann, will share the 1989 “Citizen of the West” award by the National Western Stock Show and the Roundup Riders of the Rockies. The award, honoring those “who uphold and perpetuate the traditions of the West,” will be presented in January. Love, 72, and his wife will be the 11th recipients. Ann Love--a past president of Historic Denver and a trustee of the Historic Paramount Foundation--is the first woman to win the award.