The late Spiro Agnew will be remembered for ''raw courage'' and regrettable acts.(Originated from Knight-Ridder Newspapers)

WASHINGTON _ Seven years after resigning the vice presidency in disgrace in 1973, Spiro T. Agnew wrote an apologia entitled ``Go Quietly ... or Else.''

The title pretty much summed up Agnew's life for the past 23 years, a very non-public existence for a man once a heartbeat away from the presidency.

In fact, Agnew had become the political equivalent of Howard Hughes, so reclusive that a mere sighting of him was cause for a news item. Breaking his shadowy exile to attend Richard M. Nixon's funeral in 1994, Agnew drew as much, perhaps more attention, than the presidents and Watergate figures in attendance.

Nattily dressed and tanned, his silver mane swept back, Agnew moved like a specter through the crowd. Many times, he found himself standing alone.

For unlike the broken president he served under, there was no rehabilitation for Spiro Theodore Agnew, no rapprochement with the public and the press and, it seems, little hope of redemption in history.