RICHARD NIXON: 1913-1994 : DATELINE: YORBA LINDA : Darkness Descends on Presidential Light

Lights Out: As Richard Nixon’s funeral began, the Secret Service communications frequency was punctuated with word of Eagle, Timberwolf, Rawhide, Deacon and Passkey, the respective code names of Presidents Clinton, Bush, Reagan, Carter and Ford. The one Presidential moniker not heard Wednesday was Nixon’s: Searchlight.

Feed Me: Yorba Linda’s Community Center was planned as a showcase facility for the city to hold its biggest functions. On Wednesday, it served as a check-in point where dignitaries picked up parking passes, transportation tickets and pins that identified them as invited guests.

The center’s lunchroom was set aside for the scores of police officers from various jurisdictions helping with the round-the-clock security. From time to time, the turkey sandwiches ran short, but there was always plenty of macaroni salad. A caterer misunderstood the city’s order and delivered 640 pounds of the stuff instead of the 40 pounds requested.

Power Potties: Like a number of other amenities, the deluxe mobile portable restrooms behind the media grandstands at the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace were reserved for congressmen and other dignitaries, security personnel sternly warned anyone who approached.

No Scoop: Brian Singer, editor of the newspaper at Fullerton High School, where Richard Nixon spent his freshman and sophomore years, tried every tactic he could think of to get a press pass to cover the funeral. The 18-year-old, Stanford-bound senior thought he had a chance. After all, “it would be history for the high school, history for the paper and history for me to attend such an event,” he said.

Singer was attending a high school journalism convention in Portland on Saturday when he read about the funeral and called long distance to the military to find out how to get invited. He learned that at 9:30 a.m. Monday morning passes would be handed out “first come, first serve” at the El Toro Marine Base.

A serious student, Singer wouldn’t cut class, so he didn’t reach the base until 11:30. “I was turned away. They were already out of passes,” he said. Local politicians also were unable to intervene, he said.

Excused Absences: United Nations Under-Secretary General Ji Chaozhu, who represented the international body at the funeral, first met Nixon in 1972 in China when he served as an interpreter. Ji acknowledged that few actual heads of state had attended the funeral, explaining diplomatically that “the timing was so rushed. To get world leaders together, you can’t do it overnight.”

Stuck Up: Not everyone in town was caught up in the presidential funeral Wednesday. A Great Western Bank three miles up Yorba Linda Boulevard from the Nixon library was robbed just after 1 p.m. A man wearing a motorcycle helmet, black gloves and a blue coat simulated a weapon and escaped with an unknown amount of money.

Although a majority of Brea’s police force was working security at the Nixon burial, several officers arrived at the scene of the robbery “a minute and a half” after a police dispatcher was alerted, according to Lt. Cliff Trimble. The department was “able to provide services to the community just as if this (burial) was not occurring.”

Alma Mater: On the campus of Duke University in Durham, N.C., where Nixon graduated law school in 1937, opinion on Wednesday about the former President ran the same ambivalent spectrum as elsewhere.

“The conservatives think he was a great American,” said Justin Dillon, editorial page editor of the Chronicle, the campus daily. “The liberals are saying, ‘He’s dead, but let’s not lionize him.’ ”

Not much chance of that at Duke. After a contentious, campuswide debate in 1981, university officials rejected an opportunity to be the home of the Nixon library if they had to accept a museum as well. A Nixon portrait, commissioned by his law school classmates, remained in a secure vault Wednesday. Whenever it is hung, a school official confided, “people do things to it.”

Dope: While some Yorba Linda residents sold parking spots and trips to their bathrooms in the name of commerce, at least one visitor to the Nixon library used the opportunity for politics. Moreno Valley resident James Acosta spent the early morning hours garnering signatures for a petition advocating the legalization of marijuana.

“The constitution was written on marijuana,” said a fervent Acosta, as his impromptu petition drive drew icy glares from mourners. “The first flag made by Betsy Ross was (also) made from hemp paper.”

The End: About 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, a team of a dozen men roared up in five trucks loaded with wheelbarrows and shovels and headed off to the library’s rose garden. Most of the guests had already left and the chairs were being loaded up. Five minutes later they started filling in the grave, but then stopped because the Nixon family wanted to visit.

The hole into which the casket had been lowered was dug 65 to 75 inches deep by 40 inches wide, according to Jeff Kidwiler, a vice president with United Park Service, which oversaw the filling of the grave. The vault, which weighs 2,800 pounds, compared to the standard weight of 1,200 pounds, was made by United Park Service. The vault is 86 inches long and the top is golden-white marble.

“This is really an honor,” Kidwiler said. “All the guys have volunteered for this. It’s really special because I grew up in Yorba Linda.”