RSVP : Former Diplomat Honored

Walter Annenberg was her father’s “true friend,” said Julie Nixon Eisenhower as she joined her sister Tricia Nixon Cox in hanging the Steuben glass “1995 Nixon Architect of Peace Award” medallion around the neck of the publisher and philanthropist her father had appointed ambassador to Great Britain in 1965.

“At my father’s darkest hour Walter was on the phone,” said Eisenhower, “asking him ‘What do you think of this?’ ‘Have you thought about that?’ Bringing my father back into the world of ideas, revitalizing his interests in foreign policy, history, the future.”

Among those greeting each other with enthusiasm at the cocktail reception Thursday at the Century Plaza were Annenberg’s wife, Lee, and their daughter, Wallis Annenberg, Gerald and Betty Ford, Pete and Gayle Wilson, David Eisenhower and Edward Cox.

Walter Annenberg was the first recipient of this award, created by the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace and the Nixon Center for Peace and Freedom to honor “a distinguished public figure who exemplifies President Nixon’s principles of enlightened national interest in foreign policy and pragmatic idealism at home.”

But it was Annenberg’s interest in public and private education that was the focus of most of the speeches. Both his own thanks and the keynote address of New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman stressed the crisis in the nation’s schools. The evening’s honorary chairman, Steven Sample, president of USC, which Annenberg endows, dubbed him a “champion of education.”

The loyal Republicans gathered for the evening showed great interest in Whitman and, in light of the upcoming presidential race, noted her juxtaposition to Wilson, especially as the late Richard Nixon had called the two “my ticket.”

Introducing Whitman--”She was Jersey before Jersey was cool”--Gayle Wilson spoke for her husband, who is still recovering from throat surgery: “It has certainly been interesting transposing roles so Pete is in the adoring spouse seat.”

Packets of first-day-of-issue envelopes with the new 32-cent Richard Nixon stamp were the table favors. “I like the stamp because my dad had arresting eyes and it shows that,” said Julie Eisenhower.

Others at the dinner, which raised $500,000 for the Nixon Library and Peace and Freedom Center programs, included dinner chairman Gerald Parsky, library director John Taylor, Bob and Dolores Hope, the Coxes’ son, Christopher, John and Elizabeth Argue, James and Carolyn Marlen, Fred Gerstell, and Charles and Carolyn Miller.