Richard Nixon rounds out a new class of Orange County Hall of Fame inductees

Former President Richard Nixon is set to join a select list of notables slated to be inducted into the Orange County Hall of Fame.

The Orange County Board of Supervisors approved 10 honorees in all during its Tuesday meeting, including fast food entrepreneur Carl Karcher, pioneering electric guitar designer Leo Fender, actress Michelle Pfeiffer and civil rights icon Sylvia Mendez.

Board Chairman Don Wagner called the slate “absolutely unassailable.”

“We have Orange County’s only president,” Wagner said, in reference to Nixon. “Fifty years ago, he resigned and came home. [His] reputation [was] challenged, but at the end of the day, he was Orange County’s homegrown president very much deserving of our respect and inclusion into the Orange County Hall of Fame.”

On Aug. 8, 1974, Nixon addressed the nation from the Oval Office and announced that he would be stepping down as the 37th President of the United States.

“I have never been a quitter,” he said. “To leave office before my term is completed is abhorrent to every instinct in my body. But as president, I must put the interest of America first.”

Nixon resigned the following day and remains the only sitting president in U.S. history to have stepped down from the office.

The move effectively ended an impeachment inquiry into his involvement in covering up Watergate, a scandal that erupted after the Democratic National Committee’s offices were broken into at the Watergate complex in Washington D.C.

A month before Nixon’s final address as president, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered him to turn over Oval Office recordings which later revealed his efforts to have the FBI drop an investigation into the Watergate break-in.

Following his resignation, Nixon landed and deplaned at El Toro Marine Corps Air Base to a throng of cheering supporters.

Afterward, he boarded a helicopter to San Clemente where he retreated to La Casa Pacifica, the beachside estate that served as his “Western” White House.

A month after Nixon’s resignation, President Gerald Ford granted him a presidential pardon.

Nixon remained in San Clemente for six years before moving to New York City.

The county’s staff report for the 2024 Hall of Fame class offered a quick recap of the Yorba Linda native’s accomplishments, including his service as a congressman, vice president and president.

Jim Bryon, president and chief executive of the Richard Nixon Foundation thanked county supervisors on behalf of the Nixon family and the foundation’s board while congratulating the rest of the honorees.

“Richard Nixon’s legacy is woven throughout the fabric of Orange County — from his birthplace and boyhood home in Yorba Linda now on the site of his presidential library, to his Western White House in San Clemente, where he spent nearly one-fifth of his presidency — reflecting his lasting influence on our community,” Byron said. “He was a man of hard work, tenacity and strongly held beliefs. The qualities and character of a president of the United States had their roots in his past, shaped by his Quaker boyhood in Orange County.”

During a January ceremony, the inaugural Hall of Fame class inducted O.C. notables the likes of Kobe Bryant, Walt Disney, Tiger Woods and Gwen Stefani.

For the second round of inductees, Board Chairman Donald Wagner and Vice Chairman Doug Chaffee served as an ad hoc committee to review and select honorees from a host of nominations with the help of their respective staffs.

“We had a bunch of fantastic nominations from throughout Orange County,” Wagner said.

The Hall of Fame distinction honors people for their accomplishments in civics, business, philanthropy, sports, music, arts and entertainment.

This year’s class also includes Nick Berardino, Wing Lam and the Lee family, Ed Paul, William Steiner, and Charlie Zhang.

After a unanimous vote by the board to approve the nominees, all that’s left is setting a date for an induction ceremony, which may come as soon as December.