David Nicholson

As everyone has noted, Dave was an exemplary editor, a wonderful mentor, a charming gentleman and one heck of a drinking buddy. And while I have countless Dave Nicholson memories, there is one in particular I would like to share because I think it speaks to Dave's secret ingredient – his delightful sense of humour.

Dave and I were at the Moscow Airport, having just wrapped up coverage of a Reagan-Gorbachev Cold War summit. As we were eyeing various souvenirs to take home to our families, an impatient American woman shoved past Dave and up to the counter. As many of you know, Dave was not a slight fellow, so you can imagine the girth on the female Yank and what it must have taken for her to move our Canadian mountain out of the way.

In 15 years of knowing him, I had never heard Dave utter anything but the gentlest and most polite of phrases. And so he did here:

"Oh, I'm sorry," he said respectfully. "Are you in a hurry?"

"Why yes I am," chirped the obese American woman.

"Well," said Dave nicely, and then turning into a roar "So am I!!!"

And with that, he threw an elbow into the startled woman's solar plexus and sent her stumbling back into the masses.

One of the funniest things I ever saw.   

God Bless You, Dave.

My heart aches. ■