O.C. Officials Scramble to Plan Nixon Services : Funeral: World’s dignitaries, media will descend on Yorba Linda, where final rites are planned Wednesday.

With four hundred hotel rooms and 50 limousines already reserved, Orange County began hurried preparations Saturday for national and world figures expected to arrive here this week to pay final respects to Richard M. Nixon.

The former President, who died Friday, will be eulogized in a state funeral to be held Wednesday at the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace in Yorba Linda. President Clinton will deliver one of the eulogies, and all four living former presidents--Gerald R. Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and George Bush--are planning to attend.

“This county is going to see more world leaders than it ever has, and in the history of this county, I doubt we will ever see anything like this again,” Gayle Anderson, Orange County chief of protocol, said Saturday.

Foreign dignitaries, likely to include representatives of many heads of state, are expected to begin arriving Tuesday, Anderson said.

The governments of China, Japan and Russia already have notified the U.S. State Department of their intention to send representatives, Anderson said. It is not yet clear whether those in attendance will be heads of state.

For Nixon loyalists, it will be “another gathering of the clan,” said Kenneth L. Khachigian, an Orange County political consultant and former Nixon speech writer who was at the library Saturday. Among the long-time Nixon associates expected to attend, he said, are Patrick Buchanan, Charles Colson and many former Nixon cabinet members, including Alexander M. Haig Jr. and George P. Shultz.

On Friday afternoon, Anderson received the first calls from the U.S. Secret Service and the national office of protocol asking for help in making arrangements.

To smooth the arrivals of foreign dignitaries and facilitate their stay in Orange County, a team of protocol officers also will be landing here, including Molly Raiser, chief of protocol for the U.S. State Department, Anderson said.

Anderson said she will stay in close contact with consuls general in Los Angeles to update her list of dignitaries and ensure they are well cared for.

Crystal Cathedral Ministries in Garden Grove has provided two vans, with drivers, to assist, Anderson said, and the vans will start shuttling protocol officers around the county as early as today

Working closely with managers at the Anaheim Marriott and the Four Seasons Hotel, Le Meridien and Marriott hotels in Newport Beach, Anderson said she already has reserved 400 rooms. She said her goal was to reserve rooms as close as possible to the library in Yorba Linda.

“This is a very historic time in this county,” Anderson said.

At the Nixon library, harried officials on Saturday described the early plans for the funeral service and other arrangements as fluid, and offered few new details. At the Nixon family’s request, the White House is coordinating the arrangements, with the assistance of the State Department and the library staff.

Security arrangements are being worked out between the Secret Service and local police.

“A tidal wave is coming at us,” one official said as he briefed some 60 members of the news media about the funeral arrangements.

The work has been hampered because so many calls have come into the Nixon library switchboard since Friday that the staff has had difficulty calling out to make the arrangements, the officials said, who asked not to be quoted by name.

These specifics are known:

The funeral service, for up to 1,800 invited guests, will begin at 4 p.m. Wednesday. Immediately afterward, in a private ceremony, the former President will be laid to rest beside his wife, Pat Nixon, who died last June and was buried near the library’s rose garden.

Pat Nixon’s service was held in the grassy amphitheater near the library’s reflection pool, but that area was considered too small for the many hundreds of guests who are likely to attend her husband’s funeral.

Instead, the former President’s service will be conducted at the eastern end of the library’s parking lot, where a team of workers spent Saturday constructing wooden platforms for guests and the press. The former President’s boyhood home, a small, white farmhouse built by his father, will serve as the backdrop.

Along with President Clinton, Nixon will be eulogized by Kansas Sen. Bob Dole, Gov. Pete Wilson and former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger. The Rev. Billy Graham will officiate during the service, expected to last 45 to 55 minutes.

The library staff also is trying to arrange to broadcast the service simultaneously to an area set aside for members of the public who would like to listen to the eulogies.

On Tuesday, the casket bearing Nixon’s remains will be accompanied by his family as it is flown on a military aircraft from New York to California, military officials said. The plane is expected to leave Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh, N.Y., at 6:45 a.m. PDT, arriving at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station at 12:35 p.m.

After a brief ceremony at El Toro, the motorcade will make its way to the library. Officials said they did not yet know what route it will take or whether streets will be closed.

While the funeral will be private, the public will be allowed to gather at the library, beginning at 1 p.m. Tuesday, to await the motorcade’s arrival. From 3 p.m. Tuesday to 11 a.m. Wednesday, the body of the former President will lie in state in the library’s lobby, where the public will be allowed to pay its respects.

With the exception of the public viewing, however, the library will remain closed until 10 a.m. Thursday, the day after the funeral, officials said.

Planning for a state funeral is an enormous undertaking, the officials said, requiring coordination between the White House, the State Department, the Nixon library staff, and the Nixon Family.

Among the issues still in question Saturday: Which streets near the library should be closed off? How can television crews, with satellite dishes and production trucks, along with scores of other media, be accommodated on or near the library grounds? And, where is everyone going to park?

At Saturday’s press briefing, one television producer asked whether Yorba Linda Boulevard, the city’s main thoroughfare that runs by the library, could be closed for three days so the networks’ big rigs could be parked there. Library staff said they did not know.

“They have had such short notice to get everything going,” said Khachigian, the former speech writer for Nixon. “Hundreds of people must be invited. They have to deal with the press, and international leaders must be contacted. A full panoply of things must be done.”

Times staff writers Dan Weikel and David Reyes contributed to this report.

Funeral Timetable

Military officials Saturday released a tentative timetable for the transportation of former President Richard Nixon’s body to California for the funeral and interment at the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace in Yorba Linda on Wednesday.

TUESDAY

* 6:45 a.m.: The body will depart Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh, N.Y., after a ceremony.

* 12:35 p.m.: The body will arrive at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. A brief military ceremony is planned. It was not immediately clear whether the arrival will be open to the public. The body will be taken by motorcade to the Nixon Library.

* About 1 p.m.: The motorcade will arrive at the library. The public is invited to witness the arrival of the casket, but parking will be severely limited. Visitors should expect to walk long distances.

* From 3 p.m. Tuesday to 11 a.m. Wednesday: The body will lie in state, casket closed, for public viewing in the library lobby.

WEDNESDAY

* 3 p.m.: Former Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and George Bush will gather in private with the family in the lobby.

* 4 p.m.: The funeral will begin and will last 45 to 55 minutes. An unknown number of dignitaries and invited guests will be seated in the library’s parking lot, with family members, eulogists and the casket on a stage.

* The Rev. Billy Graham will preside over the funeral. Eulogies will be delivered by President Clinton, Sen. Robert Dole (R-Kan.), former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Gov. Pete Wilson.

* Closed: On the day of the funeral, all streets around the library, including Yorba Linda Boulevard, will be closed.

* The Nixon Library: 18001 Yorba Linda Blvd.; will remain closed until 10 a.m. Thursday.

Source: U.S. Army Military District, Ft. McNair, Washington, D.C.