HANOVER, NH — Howard Nicholson passed away on March, 29, 2019 at Kendal-at-Hanover in Hanover NH. He was 98 years old. He is survived by his wife, Gertrude and his son Howard Jr., and numerous nephews and nieces.
Howard Nicholson was born in Brooklyn, New York on October 5, 1920 as the second oldest child in a family of four children. He grew up in Montclair New Jersey and then went to Oberlin College where he graduated with a degree in history and where he met his wife Gertrude Colson whom he married in December, 1942 after a three-and-a-half-year courtship and which turned into a 77 year long marriage. After spending a few years carrying out his military service initially as an enlisted man and ultimately as a Captain in the Air Force in World War II, he returned to Cambridge Massachusetts with his wife and young son where he obtained a PhD degree in Economics from Harvard University. He then received a junior faculty appointment in the Economics Department at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. During his employment at the University of Virginia, he spent a sabbatical year as a visiting faculty member at the University of California at Berkeley. He then obtained a permanent faculty position in the Economics Department of Clark University and he and his family moved to Worcester Massachusetts where he spent the remainder of his academic career on the Clark faculty as Professor of Economics. During his tenure at Clark, he spent a year working for the World Bank and two years as a program manager for the National Science Foundation.
After he retired from Clark, Howard moved to Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. While in Shrewsbury, he developed polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) and shortly thereafter he and his wife moved to the retirement community Kendal at Hanover in Hanover, New Hampshire.
During his academic career, Howard published numerous scholarly papers in economics. In his free time, he enjoyed playing and watching golf and playing chess and being a father. While living in Worcester, he was a member of the First Baptist Church of Worcester Massachusetts and served as a deacon there for many years. After moving to Hanover, he became a member of St. Barnabas Episcopal Church of Norwich Vermont and was a senior warden there for several
years. At Kendal he was initially involved in setting up a computer lab for residents who, at that time, seldom owned a computer of their own.
Howard was always very fond of children and was thought of as a grandfather to his brother’s son’s children. He also spent many hours talking and playing with the children in the Kendal staff children’s program.
A memorial service for Howard will be planned for later in the spring of 2019.