Richard Nixon was a Quaker

On January 9, 1913, Richard Milhous Nixon was born in a home his father had constructed on the family's lemon ranch in Yorba Linda, California. Francis A. and Hannah (Milhous) Nixon were his parents. His father changed from Methodism to the Quaker faith, and his mother was a Quaker. Nixon was a direct descendant of early English pioneer Thomas Cornell through his mother. Thomas Cornell was also an ancestor of Jimmy Carter, Bill Gates, and Ezra Cornell, who founded Cornell University.

Nixon's childhood was impacted by traditional Quaker practices like refraining from drinking, dancing and using profanity. The Religious Society of Friends, another name for the Quakers, originated in 17th-century England and supported pacifism and gender equality in spiritual matters at a time when such ideas were out of favor. Nixon had a religious exemption from participating in World War II, but he renounced it in order to join the Navy. Quakers in Milwaukee and Minneapolis allegedly didn't appreciate the association with the pariah president when he was later facing impeachment for his involvement in Watergate, and petitioned for his removal from office months before he resigned.