Raising Money Was Tough Task : Donations: Nixon relied on old friends and supporters to give more than $27 million. He chipped in $2 million himself.

Financially, Richard M. Nixon’s dream of building a presidential library was like launching another campaign.

It could take as much as $37 million in private contributions to get the library up and running, almost as much as George Bush spent in the 1988 general election. So when the time came in 1984 to revive plans for a library, Nixon dusted off some of the same political machinery that powered his drive to the White House.

The man chosen to head the fund-raising was Maurice H. Stans, finance chairman in 1972 for Nixon’s Committee to Re-Elect the President. Nixon also called together two former members of his Cabinet, William E. Simon and John C. Whitaker, to establish the library foundation in 1984.

Each is fiercely loyal to Nixon and dedicated to the construction of the library, but also aware that bankrolling the project would be a daunting task.

Instead of raising money for a presidential candidate, this cause would benefit a man who had not held office in more than a decade and who resigned under the cloud of a national scandal. Ronald Reagan, on the other hand, raised most of the $40 million for his library while he was President.

Even among political cronies, power is the lubricant of fund-raising, and Nixon had none.

“It was far from easy,” recalled Stans, who said the fund-raising took more than half of his time over a four-year period. “I have been loyal to him all the way through. This was my way of expressing my respect to President Nixon.”

Stans, Nixon’s former commerce secretary who is now an accountant in Pasadena, was caught up in the investigation of campaign practices stemming from Watergate. He was fined $5,000 after pleading guilty to violating contribution reporting laws.

Whitaker, secretary of the Cabinet under Nixon and the first head of the library foundation, also said the fund-raising “has been a long road.”

“These people are giving their money purely out of friendship and loyalty,” Whitaker said. “They are not basking in the light of a sitting President.”

Those who gave were generous. The average contribution to the library was about $27,000, with about half a dozen donations of more than $1 million, according to Stans.

In all, the foundation has raised about $27 million from a cross-section of Nixon backers that range from titans of industry to former government officials, celebrities, old friends and family members. Nixon himself was a major contributor, pledging at least $2 million, including money from the sale of his New Jersey home and profits from his latest book, “In the Arena.”

Besides Nixon, who gave what is a matter of speculation.

Because the library is operated by the private, nonprofit Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace Foundation, it is not required to disclose the names of contributors or the amounts donated. It also requested an extension for filing its 1989 tax forms, which would have revealed the group’s financial status last year.

In the last tax form filed by the foundation--for 1988--about 40% of the assets reported were in pledges rather than cash donations. Stans said much of the foundation’s money is still in pledges contained in wills or amounts to be paid over periods of up to 30 years.

Library officials would not say how much cash is in the foundation.

With so much of the money in pledges, Whitaker said, the foundation has faced some tight financial situations. However, he said, the project never fell behind on its bills and did not scale back its plans because of a shortfall.

“We’re good for the money, but the cash flow has been hard,” Whitaker said. “It’s been a close call to come up with the money.”

The total cost of building the library is expected to be about $21 million, said Hugh Hewitt, the foundation’s executive director. In addition, he said, the foundation will soon launch a second phase of fund-raising to generate $10 million more for an endowment that will help pay for the library’s operating costs. That could bring total contributions to $37 million.

Any of the $27 million left over after construction of the library will be added to the endowment fund, Hewitt said.

Although library officials have not revealed the list of contributors, many major supporters are on the foundation’s board of directors, at least seven of whom are on Forbes magazine’s 1989 list of the 400 wealthiest Americans.

They include such investment tycoons as Simon, David H. Murdock, Max M. Fisher, Shelby Cullom Davis, Newport Beach developer George Argyros and publisher Walter H. Annenberg.

Annenberg gave $250,000 to Nixon’s 1972 presidential campaign and served in his Administration as ambassador to Great Britain. A decade later, Annenberg hosted the first event to kick off the plans for the Nixon library at his estate in Rancho Mirage.

PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARIES Rutherford B. Hayes Library Presidency: 1877-81. Opened: Memorial Day, 1916. Location: Fremont, Ohio. Contains: More than 1 million pages of documents from the Hayes presidency, plus 10,000 museum objects, including a White House carriage. Site also includes the Hayes residence and the tomb of Rutherford and Lucy Hayes. Admission: $3. Franklin D. Roosevelt Library Presidency: 1933-45. Opened: July 4, 1940. Location: Hyde Park, N.Y. Contains: Extensive collection of documents, small naval museum, family mementos. Admission: $3.50. Harry S. Truman Library Presidency: 1945-53. Opened: July 6, 1957. Location: Independence, Mo. Contains: Replica of the Oval Office, a large mural and several paintings by Thomas Hart Benton, one of Truman’s favorite artists. Truman is buried there. Admission: $2. Dwight D. Eisenhower Library Presidency: 1953-61. Opened: May 1, 1962. Location: Abilene, Kan. Contains: Memorabilia from the White House and Eisenhower’s military days. The complex of buildings houses his presidential papers and a nondenominational church. Eisenhower and his wife are buried there. Admission: $1. Herbert Hoover Library Presidency: 1929-33. Opened: Aug. 10, 1962. Location: West Branch, Iowa. Contains: Records from Hoover’s long career in public service, rare books, his fishing tackle and a collection of valuable Chinese porcelain. The Hoover grave site is also on the 187-acre grounds. Admission: $1. Lyndon Baines Johnson Library Presidency: 1963-69. Opened: May 22, 1971. Location: University of Texas--Austin. Contains: Archives with 35 million documents, oral history project, family and political memorabilia, replica of the Oval Office, Vietnam War exhibit. Admission: Free. John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library Presidency: 1961-63. Opened: Oct. 20, 1979. Location: Boston, Mass. Contains: Housed in a building designed by I.M. Pei on the waterfront, the museum contains a variety of exhibits portraying the events of the Kennedy presidency, including the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban missile crisis and the assassination. Admission: $3.50. Gerald R. Ford Library Presidency: 1974-77. Opened: April 27, 1981. Location: University of Michigan--Ann Arbor. Contains: Ford’s papers from his presidency and years in Congress. A Ford presidential museum opened in September, 1981, in Grand Rapids, Mich. Admission: $1.50 Jimmy Carter Library Presidency: 1977-81. Opened: Oct. 1, 1986. Location: Emory University, Atlanta, Ga. Contains: Camp David accords, Salt II treaty, replica of the Oval Office, exhibit on the Iran hostage crisis, interactive video in which visitors can ask questions of Carter. Admission: $2.50. Richard Nixon Library Presidency: 1969-74. Opened: July 19, 1990. Location: Yorba Linda, Calif. Contains: Selected White House tapes from the Watergate scandal, high-tech interactive displays in which visitors can ask questions of world leaders, a replica of the Lincoln Sitting Room. The house where Nixon was born is next door to the library. Admission: $3.95. Ronald Reagan Library Presidency: 1981-89. Scheduled Opening: Feb. 6, 1991. Location: Simi Valley, Calif. Will Contain: Largest collection of presidential papers of any of the libraries, a replica of the Oval Office, videotapes, photographs, films and mementos. Admission: Not yet decided.

Source: National Archives, individual libraries, “Presidential Libraries and Collections” and Los Angeles Times files.