Pulling for Nixon : Leadership: Admirers gather at Yorba Linda Library & Birthplace to send former President best wishes, urge him to ‘keep fighting.’

Tim Fisher was in the middle of his daily water-delivery route Tuesday morning when he heard the news that former President Richard Nixon lay partially paralyzed by a serious stroke.

So the deliveryman interrupted his work and drove straight to the Nixon Library & Birthplace. “The man has done a lot for the country,” said Fisher, 49, “and now he needs our support.”

Terry Roberts brought her two sons, age 4 and 6, to the library immediately upon learning of the former President’s condition. “Our thoughts and prayers are with him,” she said. “We wish him well.”

And Dave Peters, a professor at La Mirada’s Biola University, began a previously scheduled tour of the facility with his American history class by pausing on the front steps long enough to lead the group in prayer for the ex-President’s recovery. “I’m very saddened,” Peters said. “I’ve always been pleased that he’s been so active and animated.”

The three well-wishers were among the hundreds who stood in line at Nixon’s presidential library Tuesday to scrawl their thoughts in a get-well book prominently displayed in the lobby. Hundreds of others called to offer hope and encouragement. And dozens more inquired about--in many cases, purchased--autographs of the former head of state that were on sale in the gift shop for $100 to $300.

“The mood is one of concern, but confidence,” said John H. Taylor, the museum’s director. “There is no fatalism in these calls; we know he can beat this.”

Indeed, it almost seemed like business as usual at the museum as visitors alternated between standing in line to sign the get-well book, viewing a documentary in which the 81-year-old former chief executive speaks of the “evening” of his life, and strolling out past the garden in which Nixon’s wife, Pat, was buried last year.

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Taylor, who accompanied Nixon on a trip to the former Soviet Union a month ago, said there was much cause for optimism regarding the former President’s condition. “I am worried about this development,” he said, “but also greatly encouraged because I know of the reservoirs of strength that President Nixon has to call upon. I can tell you from personal observation that, until this illness struck yesterday, he was at the top of his form; as vigorous as a man could be, with strength and fortitude and will in abundance.”

That view seemed to be shared by most of the well-wishers--many of them longtime Nixon supporters--as they stood in line reminiscing about the man most said they greatly admired.

“You’re a real trooper,” one wrote in the get-well book, “and I know you’ll get better.”

Wrote another: “You have always been a fighter; keep on fighting.”

As in most discussions of Nixon, however, the subject of Watergate--the scandal that forced him from office in 1974--inevitably came up.

Peter Mocciaro, a dentist from Downey, said he thought that history would be kind to the only President to resign his office. “I just hope he can survive this,” he said of Nixon’s condition. “I happen to feel that he was a great President who’s been very unfairly treated.”

John Bardgette, a retired petroleum company employee from Thousand Oaks, expressed similar sentiments. “I’ve always felt that Nixon was one of our country’s real statesmen,” he said. “I think the only thing he did wrong was not burn the (Watergate) tapes.”

Among those in attendance were some who had not yet been born when Nixon was in office.

Beth Bayless, a 19-year-old student at Biola, said that she had felt “overwhelmed” earlier in the day upon hearing of the Nixon’s condition while getting ready for her class field trip to the presidential library. “I’ve always looked up to President Nixon,” the student said. “I’m very excited to be here today, but it’s kind of bittersweet.”

Jimmie Anderson, 20, said he was struck by the irony of visiting Nixon’s library on the same day that news of his stroke was released. “We’re getting to see his past life in the museum and present life in the news,” he said.

And 13-year-old Erin Oshea, on a field trip with members of her class at Covenant Christian School in Orange, said that she had gotten her first impression of Nixon by visiting the library that day.

Just what had she learned?

“That he’s an OK guy,” Oshea said. “I hope he gets better and doesn’t have any more problems.”