Mr. Meredith Nicholson Iii

Meredith Nicholson 83, died December 20, 2009 of congestive heart failure in Casa Grande, Arizona. Mr. Nicholson was born in 1926 in Indianapolis, Indiana, to his parents, Meredith Nicholson, Jr., and Roberta West Nicholson. Mr. Nicholson was the grandson of prominent Indiana author Meredith Nicholson. Mr. Nicholson graduated from Indianapolis's Shortridge High School in 1944 and Indiana University in 1947 with a degree in government. After college, Mr. Nichoson followed a childhood love of journalism to take a job at The Evansville Courier as a police reporter. Mr. Nicholson served in the Army during the Korean War, graduating from OCS at Fort Riley. Assigned to the Finance Corps, Nicholson was stationed in St. Louis and Kentucky until his honorable discharge in 1954. After the Army, Mr. Nicholson continued in finance, working as an officer and an executive at banks in Indiana, Pennsylvania and suburban Chicago. It was there that he was re-introduced to journalism thru his second wife, Lora Krapohl Nicholson. They wed in 1978 and purchased The Palos Heights Reporter on the south side of Chicago the following year. The Nicholsons sold it in 1986 and subsequently moved to Raymond, Washington, where they bought The Willapa Harbor Herald. They co-edited and co-published The Herald until they sold the paper and retired in 1996. Among his many duties at The Herald was a weekly column he wrote called "Notebook." Meredith and Lora Nicholson considered the growth and vitality of The Herald as the crowning achievement of their respective careers. Following their retirement, the Nicholson's established a part-time residence in Casa Grande, with Meredith becoming a permanent Arizona resident in 2002. In retirement, Mr. Nicholson continued to write for local magazines and historical journals in both Raymond and Casa Grande. In 2002, the Nicholson's collaborated on a 72-page monograph on the founders of Raymond, L.V. and Stella Raymond, published by the Pacific County Historical Society. The special edition ofThe Sou'wester was given an award of excellence by the Washington Museums Association in 2004. Besides journalism and newspapers, Mr. Nicholson enjoyed traveling, especially by train. In his later years, Mr. Nicholson, took an interest in the outdoors, going hiking in the Arizona desert and white-river rafting thru the Grand Canyon. Also, Mr. Nicholson went sky-diving in September 2009, against his doctor's recommendation, as a personal challenge to match President George H.W. Bush's much-publicized jumps. Mr. Nicholson's first marriage to Elizabeth Ann Crist, of Indianapolis, was ended by divorce, and the second, to Lora Krapohl Nicholson, of Saginaw, Mich., by her death in 2002. Mr. Nicholson is survived by his son, Joseph Nicholson, of Seattle, Washington, daughter, Elizabeth Nicholson, and grandchildren Sarah Yoe and James Yoe, all of Maryland. A sister, Eugenie Fox, predeceased Mr. Nicholson in March 2009. Family and friends of Mr. Nicholson will meet in the Gothic Chapel at Crown Hill Cemetery for a memorial service Thursday January 28, 2010 at 11 a.m. with inurnment following services. The family requests that any memorials to Mr. Nicholson be made to local hospice or food bank organizations. For more information, please call Joseph Nicholson at 206-714-6219. Arrangements: Crown Hill Funeral Home.