Brian Nicholson

Brian D. Nicholson's favorite expression was "I love my life!" - and he truly did. Brian was born on October 23, 1932 in San Pedro, California to Neil and Isabelle Nicholson. He was raised in Pensacola, Florida. Brian was the oldest of three brothers, and had many happy stories from his childhood - most involving fireworks or BB guns or great adventures with sticks of dynamite he and his brothers discovered. He graduated from Pensacola High School in 1952, and went on to Florida State University, where he earned a Bachelor's degree in Geophysics. Brian married the love of his life, Jerrie Walker Nicholson on December 26, 1957. From that day forward, he took care of her and she took care of him: they lived Happily Ever After. They would have celebrated their fifty-seventh wedding anniversary this week, and they still held hands when they walked. They had two children, Andrea and Brian, Jr. and the four of them travelled the world together. Brian worked as a geophysicist in the oil industry, first for United Geophysical and later for Phillips Petroleum and Tenneco Oil. His career took the family to Argentina, Nigeria, Singapore, Libya, and Peru. Brian's job as a geophysicist was to find the oil: he set up camp in the jungle, located where the oil was most likely to be found, and prepared the site for the oil company to come in. Brian was an honorable representative not just for his company, but for his country. He treated the local villagers with great respect, and they responded in kind. Brian insisted that any services available to the oil company employees also be made available to the local villagers; for many of the villagers it was their first access to modern medicine. The villagers often expressed their gratitude to Brian with gifts of exotic animals, so over the years the Nicholson family menagerie included dogs, cats, parrots, a gibbon, a spider monkey, snakes, lizards and an ocelot. The family eventually moved back to the U.S., and Brian worked for oil companies in Oklahoma, Texas, and Louisiana. Brian liked hard work. When Brian retired from his successful career in the oil industry, he focused his energy on his homes. He tore down walls and old kitchens and bathrooms; he rebuilt and remodeled and renovated. He built decks and docks, boathouses, greenhouses, guest houses, garages, gardens and koi ponds. When everything was ship-shape and the property could sustain no more outbuildings, Brian and Jerrie started looking for the next place to live. They moved five times in their retirement, and each time they left behind property and people enriched for their having passed through. After Louisiana, the couple moved to Lake Guntersville, Alabama and then to Sautee-Nacoochee, Georgia. From Georgia the Nicholsons moved to Anderson, South Carolina and, two weeks ago, to Bartlesville, Oklahoma.