Nixon Foundation Remembers Edward Nixon, Brother Of President

YORBA LINDA, CA —The Nixon Foundation shared the loss of the youngest and last surviving brother of President Richard Nixon, Edward Nixon, who died Wednesday at a skilled nursing facility in Bothell, Washington, at the age of 88.

The author of the 2009 publication, "The Nixons: A Family Portrait," Edward Nixon was also a career geologist and expert on global energy use.

Edward Calvert Nixon was a resident of Whittier, Calif. who worked on his brother's successful presidential campaigns in 1968 and 1972. He was an original member of the board of directors of the Richard Nixon Foundation.

According to his nieces, President Nixon's daughters, Edward Nixon was the fifth and youngest son of Frank and Hannah Nixon. He was "born with a practical mind and an ever-present, unassuming smile," they wrote. To the girls, he was "an ideal mentor and source of strength, whether in the Navy, as a distinguished member of the scientific community, or on his goodwill journeys all across the world," they said. "He was a source of guidance to our father, whose favorite 'little Eddie' grew up into a renowned geologist with an infectious curiosity. He was always thinking, always working -- never for his own benefit, but to uncover the answers to questions that science poses in our world."

Edward Nixon served in the U.S. Navy as an aviator, helicopter flight instructor, assistant professor of Naval Science at the University of Washington, and naval reserve captain.

Nixon earned a master's degree in geological engineering from North Carolina State University, Raleigh, and a bachelor's degree in geology from Duke University.

He served as president of Nixon World Enterprises Inc., and chairman of the Pyron Solar Advisory Board in San Diego, and traveled around the world six times.

He is survived by his daughters Amelie "Amy" Peiffer and Elizabeth "Beth" Matheny. His wife of 57 years, Gay Lynne Nixon, died in 2014.

Information on funeral services will be released in the coming days, according to Joe Lopez of the Richard Nixon Foundation.

City News Service, Patch Editor Ashley Ludwig, contributed to this report.