L. Nicholas Ruwe; Aide to Presidents, Ex-Ambassador

L. Nicholas Ruwe, 56, former ambassador to Iceland and aide to two presidents. Appointed U.S. assistant chief of protocol by President Richard M. Nixon, Ruwe arranged the state funerals of Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1969 and Harry S. Truman in 1972 and the world tour of astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins after the first manned mission to the moon in 1969. He served as chief of Nixon’s post-presidency staff from 1980-84, as consultant to President Ronald Reagan’s campaigns in 1980 and 1984 and as ambassador to Iceland from 1985-89. In Rochester, Minn., on Wednesday of cancer.