Elliot Richardson’s Service, Act of Defiance Remembered
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WASHINGTON — Elliot L. Richardson was remembered Saturday in the nation’s capital for six decades of public service and one searing moment of defiance as U.S. attorney general when President Nixon tried to derail the Watergate investigation.
More than 1,000 people attended Richardson’s memorial service at Washington National Cathedral, remembering the man who resigned Oct. 20, 1973, rather than follow Nixon’s order to fire Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor investigating the break-in at Democratic headquarters in the Watergate office complex.
Richardson, 79, died New Year’s Eve in Boston of a cerebral hemorrhage.
Those who attended Saturday’s memorial included his two sons and a daughter, with their families, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Atty. Gen. Janet Reno and Sens. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Charles S. Robb (D-Va.).
Richardson held more Cabinet posts than any other American-- four--and was Nixon’s attorney general, secretary of Defense and secretary of Health, Education and Welfare and President Ford’s secretary of Commerce.
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