A large public gathering in remembrance of Mark Felt, the former assistant FBI director who was the source of information that helped bring down Richard Nixon's presidency, will take place in mid-January in Santa Rosa, his family said Friday.
Felt died Thursday afternoon of congestive heart failure at his home in Santa Rosa. He was 95.
Private memorials are planned over the weekend in the family's northwest Santa Rosa home, followed by a private cremation Monday, said Felt's daughter, Joan Felt.
The family is also planning to erect a memorial in a local cemetery telling Felt's story, said John O'Connor, the family's attorney.
Felt revealed in 2005, through Joan Felt, that he was "Deep Throat," the anonymous source who leaked information to Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward about the 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate building in Washington.
Woodward and Carl Bernstein's reporting, with Felt's information, led to the resignation of Nixon in 1974.
In a statement Felt's family made public Friday, O'Connor said Felt "admired President Nixon's law enforcement and anti-terror policies and had no motive to push him out of office. It was only after he saw the FBI investigation obstructed by the White House that he felt duty-bound to inform the citizenry in the only way possible -- through the free press."
Critics, including those who went to prison for the Watergate scandal, called Felt a traitor for betraying the commander in chief.
Supporters hailed him as a hero for blowing the whistle on a corrupt administration trying to cover up attempts to sabotage opponents.
In a phone interview Friday, Woodward said despite the criticism and Felt's own ambivalence, it is clear that Felt should be remembered as a man who did the right thing.
"This is a man who did his duty to the Constitution," Woodward told the Associated Press.
Joan Felt said Woodward is expected to attend the January memorial, and hopes that Bernstein, who first met Felt last month, will be able to attend as well.
O'Connor said Felt's colleagues at the FBI would likely be invited also.
This story includes information from the Associated Press. You can reach Staff Writer Laura Norton at 521-5220 or laura.norton@pressdemocrat.com.
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