Ron Ziegler

Ron Ziegler, President Richard M. Nixon's press secretary, died of a heart attacking February 2003 in his home in Coronado, Calif., his wife, Nancy, told The Associated Press. Mr. Ziegler, who was known for referring to the Watergate break-in as a ''third-rate burglary'' and for steadfastly speaking for President Nixon as his presidency crumbled, was 63. As the investigation into Watergate unraveled, Mr. Ziegler admitted that his previous statements had become ''inoperative.'' Ronald Lewis Ziegler was born May 12, 1939, in Covington, Ky., to Louis Daniel Ziegler, the production manager of Magnus Metal Company and Ruby Parsons Ziegler, a public health nurse. He graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in politics and government in 1961. He become press officer for the California Republican party state committee. In 1962 he went to work for H. R. Haldeman, who was managing the unsuccessful Nixon campaign or governor and was in charge of the Los Angeles office of J. Walter Thompson, the advertising firm. Mr. Ziegler became an account representative there. Mr. Haldeman took him with him to work on Nixon's 1968 presidential campaign, and when Mr. Haldeman became Nixon's chief of staff, Mr. Ziegler became his spokesman. After leaving the White House, he worked for Syska and Hennessy, Inc., a consulting firm in Washington, and then served as president of the National Association of Truck Stop Operators from 1980 to 1987, then as president of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, before retiring in 1998.