David Nicholson

Dave was the kindest, gentlest and smartest man I have had the pleasure to know. All intellectuals should aspire to his way of treating every (polite) person he encountered as an invaluable addition to his life, because he understood that he might learn something about at least one subject with which he was not yet familiar. His thirst for knowledge and understanding could not be quenched. In my first week as a copy boy for the Baron, when Patty Hearst was kidnapped and there was no prepared obit or Google to mine what was needed, I returned from the New York Public Library with an armful of background material to Dave's acclaim as a conquering hero. Arthur Spiegelman said something like, "Where did we find this kid?" and made me the office mascot. I fell in love with journalism that day. ■