Richard Nixon
A fascinating story of a president’s namesake
The year was 1968. One of my best friends was Richard Nixon. Yes, Richard Nixon. Not the presidential type. Just a handsome little boy of twelve from my junior school. One with a great smile.
You have to read this whole story to figure out how a twelve-year-old boy managed to have the same name as a U.S. President on the tiny island of Sri Lanka that was so far away from America. Some 14,000 kilometres away.
Richard’s mother was beautiful. Richard Nixon’s good looks came from her. His mother and my mother were friends. They were distantly related. Richard and I were friends, obviously, children of friends. I knew everyone in Richard’s family. His four elder brothers, his sister and one younger brother.
Richard joined my formative boarding school that year. There were only three students in the boarding that could comfortably accommodate fifty. The three boys, I, Bertram and Richard Nixon, were close-knit. It was a big building, three floors for three boys on the cusp of teenage years. Despite the facility's low number of students, the hierarchies and order had to carry on. Bertram was the head perfect; I was the sub-prefect, and Richard was the only student we could administer. You can imagine the attention Richard got from both Bertram and me.
That year, the original Richard Nixon contested the presidential primaries from the Republican Party. While the contest between the states in America was getting publicity in the local papers in Sri Lanka, our little Richard Nixon became prominent among the schoolboys. His namesake was now a celebrity, and our Richard had to live with the fame of sharing the same name.
Instead of being called just Richard, boys in school started calling him both names, Richard Nixon, to make the point that Richard was famous. Our Richard Nixon, the handsome boy, was now a celebrity, a prodigy.
Richard was a skilful soccer player. When Richard dribbled the ball during soccer games, the spectators cheered him. The schoolboys repeatedly called his name, “Richard Nixon,” in big loud roars. The spectators were making a statement about our young celebrity Richard Nixon, about his unique name.
In the U.S., the original Richard Nixon went on to win the Republican nomination from being the front-runner, and then eventually, the President’s race beating Hubert Humphrey from the Democrats. As the original Richard Nixon became increasingly prominent in the news, with his image on the front page of magazines and newspapers, our little Richard Nixon had to endure more fame in school and at the playground.
Our Richard Nixon’s famous name and the story behind it would have been a hot social media story if it had happened today. It could have been on NBC, BBC, ABC and perhaps a few TV channel interviews for our little Richard Nixon.
Let us unpack the curious story of Richard’s name.
This is the unbelievable story of how a boy from a rural town in Sri Lanka got the name of an American President. In 1956, Richard’s father worked in the US embassy in Colombo. He was in charge of the vehicle fleet in the embassy. So when American VIPs arrived in Sri Lanka, Richard’s dad was in charge of their transport logistics.
In 1956, Richard Nixon was the Vice President of the U.S.A. in the Dwight Eisenhower administration. Richard Nixon undertook a state visit to Southeast Asia, including Sri Lanka. My friend, Richard’s father, was the chief chaperone to the Vice President. At the end of the official visit, the original Richard Nixon wanted to travel as a civilian tourist on the island. Our Richard’s father was his driver. They travelled to distant parts of Sri Lanka, just the two of them in their Cadillac. The original Richard Nixon made an impression on my friend’s father, and the two struck a friendship.
Our Richard’s mother was pregnant with him at the time, and soon after the Vice President’s departure, she gave birth to a baby boy. Richard’s father was so impressed with his recent close encounters with the Vice President of the United States of America that he decided to name his little boy Richard Nixon in honour of his recently met friend.
That’s how Sri Lanka’s Richard Nixon was born and inherited his famous name.
Meanwhile, the original Richard Nixon served as Eisenhower’s vice president until 1960 and lost to John F. Kennedy in the presidential race in 1960. He lost again in 1964 to Lyndon B. Johnson.
In 1968, after an intense campaign, Richard Nixon won and became the President of America. That is when the heat on my friend Richard, now eleven, started in school.
My friend, Richard Nixon’s fame, continued amongst us until the early seventies. When the original Richard Nixon faced the Watergate scandal, our own Richard Nixon had a tough time in high school. Boys jeered him for fun, but he took it up with good humour. When the original was impeached, our handsome boy had his brand damage to contend with within our boys' network.
I spent three years with Richard in the Christian boarding school until I was 15. After that, I attended school as a day student, and Richard and I were in the same class the following year. Richard, too left the boarding school at the end of that year.
Where are my characters today?
My friend Richard Nixon Rathnayake joined the US government and works for them in Washington, DC. How ironic is that? Sri Lanka has gifted a handsome young man with a famous name with a unique historical link to the US. I keep in touch with him regularly in Washington, DC. We have not met face to face for fifty years. That has not affected our life-long friendship.
Bertram is now the head of the Christian Brothers of De La Salle order in Sri Lanka and India. He, too, is a lifelong friend.
Original Richard Nixon, the President, died in 1994.
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