Arthur Boyd NICHOL

NICHOL, Arthur Boyd
1923 – 2014
It is with tremendous sadness that we announce the passing of Arthur (Art) Boyd Nichol on December 31, 2014 in Intensive Care at the Lakeshore General Hospital, in Montreal. He was 91 years old. Art is survived by his wife of 60 years, Marjorie Jean Nichol, and his daughter, Anne (Roman), and son, Murray (Cindy). He was born on September 28, 1923 in New Mills, New Brunswick, son of Murray Nichol and Marguerite MacMillan. In late 1941, shortly after his 18th birthday, he enlisted in the RCAF. He was trained at McGill in a new field; RDF or radio direction finding (eventually RADAR). At its conclusion, he sailed on the Queen Mary from New York City to Great Britain. Landing in cold damp Northern Ireland, he applied for a new posting, received tropical outfit and gear, and immediately set off on a tour around Africa in a convoy of large ships, where they were not allowed to land until Durban. They ended up at Aden, Port Tewfick, at the end of the Suez Canal. In Palestine, he spent some time with his new unit, a small group of Canadians, where he was part of a special base for the experimentation and perfecting of a new device called Rebecca. Its purpose was to provide the partisans in Greece and Yugoslavia with a sturdy portable radio receiver/ transmitter beacon set to radar frequencies that could be zeroed in on by supply aircraft which dropped people, weapons, food, and medicine by parachute. He was moved with his group to Cairo, and then Tocra, Libya, and finally via Sicily to Brindisi, Italy, where he continued to install and maintain the radar units in aircraft. During, the war, exposure to much of Europe's finest architecture must have made a serious impression, because that was the field that Art decided to pursue. He graduated in Architecture at McGill University in 1952. He began his architectural career in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he married his college sweetheart, Marjorie Stewart. They remained in the south for two more years and then returned to Montreal where he became one of the early members of the firm ARCOP, "Architects in Cooperative Partnership". Art's work was largely dominated by theatre design, including the Queen Elizabeth Theatre & Playhouse in Vancouver, where he and Marjorie spent two years, returning to Montreal to join ARCOP as local associate architect for Place Ville Marie. Art then moved on to other projects, largely theatre work: The National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Syracuse Civic Centre in N.Y., renovation of the Beaverbrook Playhouse in Fredericton, and the Tampa Bay Center for the Performing Arts. These projects gave Marjorie and Art many permanent friendships, notably Fred Lebensold, Walter Learning, Carol Jeschke, and Jim and Joan Jennewein. In 1986, during the RAIC (Royal Architectural Institute of Canada) convention in Vancouver, Art was inducted into the College of Fellows of the RAIC. In 2002, Art retired. He will be Cremated, and a Memorial Service will be held at a later date, along with an Interment in the Field of Honour in Montreal. You can express your sympathy by offering a donation to the Lakeshore General Hospital Foundation or the charity of your choice. A special thank you to the fine doctors and nurses at the Lakeshore General Emergency and ICU. Notably Drs. (Roupen) Hatzakorzian, Sabri, Labuda, and Roy, who showed enormous kindness and compassion towards Art and his family in his final days.