A Century Well Spent: EL Resident Reflects on Life After Celebrating 100th Birthday

When Irv Nichols moved to East Lansing in 1957, people were still riding horses on some of the neighborhood streets. 

When he reached his 100th birthday on Sept. 20, he acknowledged that a lot has changed in the ensuing 67 years. What he is unlikely to acknowledge is the significant role he played in bringing about some of those changes.

Nichols came to East Lansing from Kentucky where he was working for the Tuberculosis Association. The association had sent him to Ann Arbor to earn a masters degree in public health, and he liked Michigan so much, he decided to stay. 

Since then, he has dedicated his life to public service and remains active in promoting programs that continue to improve our community and the region. 

The Road to Michigan

Nichols grew up in North Carolina during the Great Depression. His father later took the family to Kentucky, and in 1944 he joined the Navy during World War II. Nichols was assigned to a ship that supported the troops landing in the Pacific Islands, despite his desire to be stationed on an aircraft carrier. 

When Nichols was sent to Boston to join up with the brand new ship and its crew, he came down with scarlet fever and the ship left without him. Nichols sees that as ultimately a bit of good fortune for him. When he recovered, he was sent to radar school at the University of Pennsylvania. 

Before he was fully trained, the war ended and Nichols was told to go home. Today, Nichols believes there was a very high chance that he would not have survived the war had he not missed his ship in Boston. Casualty rates for landing support crafts were very high. Despite his feelings about the morality of using atomic weapons, he understands that ending the war in August 1945 may have saved his life.

Nichols used some of the college credits earned at radar school to begin an undergraduate degree at Duke University, back in North Carolina. Nichols intended to get a job in social work once he graduated.

Instead of finding a job in social work, he ended up in Kentucky where his family had moved and found a position with the Tuberculosis Association. This began a long association with organizations that served people who needed help.

He met Christy Clark in Kentucky, and they had one date before he moved to Ann Arbor to pursue a masters degree in public health. Years later he would marry Clark, but he notes that during that year and a half at the University of Michigan he had no contact with Clark. 

On the first night he was in Michigan, his boss from Kentucky tried to find him, but didn’t have any contact information. His boss called the telephone operator in Ann Arbor and wondered if she could help him locate Nichols. The operator asked “Is he a tall red-head? I think I met him at a party last night.” She was able to remember where Nichols was staying and helped get him and his boss together.

After finishing his graduate program, Nichols returned to Kentucky and was an integral part of a team that was building and administering five hospitals exclusively for tuberculosis patients. It was during this time that he became reacquainted with Clark and they were soon married. The marriage lasted 60 years until Clark passed away in 2013 due to complications from Alzheimer’s disease.

While working in Kentucky, Nichols never forgot how much he enjoyed his time in Michigan. With two children in tow, he and Clark moved to East Lansing in 1957.

Life in East Lansing

The Nichols family moved into an apartment in town, but quickly began looking for a house. Nichols moved to East Lansing years before Robert Green would successfully challenge the city’s racist housing policies. The widespread discrimination in the community quickly became apparent.

“You’re going to love East Lansing. There are no Blacks here,” Nichols remembers the first real estate agent he spoke to saying.  

Appalled by the agent’s behavior, Nichols and his wife immediately dismissed him. Eventually, he found another agent and they bought a house on Ridgewood Street, before moving within the city in 1967 to the home he still lives in today.

On Ridgewood Street, there was no water or sewer service, so Nichols went door-to-door soliciting support from his neighbors to petition for a sewer system to be installed. Nichols laughs when he notes that each of his neighbors signed the petition, except for the two men who had developed the neighborhood.

His experience with the real estate agent prompted him to get involved in the Edgewood United Church, which was one of the entities leading the charge for fair housing in East Lansing. While many of his neighbors pushed back, Nichols again went door-to-door trying to find support for fair housing. 

Four days after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., the East Lansing City Council approved the Open Housing Act.

When Nichols moved to East Lansing, it was a “dry” town as it had been since the city was chartered in 1907. His wife was from Kentucky, and enjoyed a bourbon now and then, so she had it shipped up from Kentucky. Nichols noted that alcohol was “plenty easy to find outside the city limits,” and he didn’t notice any changes in the city once the dry laws were rescinded in 1968.

Christy Nichols began the family’s lifelong relationship with Michigan State University when she began working towards a masters degree in American thought and language. She went on to teach at East Lansing High School and at Lansing Community College.

Nichols himself was appointed to the Dean’s Community Council at MSU’s College of Arts and Letters. He was soon made the college’s president and was heavily involved in bringing hundreds of speakers to campus in an effort to connect the university with permanent East Lansing residents.

Nichols had already earned himself a reputation as a community activist and organizer. He joined the Rotary Club in 1958, and served as its president. He remains an active member today and was recently honored by the group for his many years of service.

A Career in Service

When he wasn’t working to make East Lansing a better place to live for everyone, Nichols worked for the Tuberculosis Association until 1974. While it is not as prevalent today, at the time tuberculosis was a deadly disease that had a high mortality rate on children.

It was during his many trips to the upper peninsula working at the region’s four tuberculosis hospitals that Nichols experienced an unexpected thrill. His return trip to East Lansing coincided with the opening of the Mackinac Bridge. He still has one of the medals that were handed to people that made the bridge crossing on the first day it was opened. 

His work at the Tuberculosis Association in Lansing focused on education, especially of children. He used a “cowboy” from Fowlerville nicknamed Rancher Glen, who dressed up in Wild West apparel and visited schools showing children how hygiene and tuberculosis were related. 

Once new vaccines were developed in the 1960s, the mortality rate of tuberculosis dropped dramatically and the need for hospitals specific to the disease went away. Nichols left the association that had brought him to East Lansing and was soon appointed to head the State of Michigan’s initiative on drug and alcohol abuse. 

Nichols spent three frustrating years there trying to organize a state-wide effort to curb abuse. In the end, he was not able to accomplish what he set out to do and left to work for the nascent American College for Emergency Physicians in Lansing. Nichols counts his failure in dealing with drug and alcohol abuse at the state level as the biggest disappointment of his life.

His work in service wasn’t done, however. Nichols and eight physicians built the college and eventually the American Board of Emergency Medicine. This was an effort to upgrade and standardize emergency room procedures for doctors and nurses. When the organization decided to move to Texas, Nichols stayed in East Lansing.

His last job was with the American Red Cross where he built a massive blood donor program, taking advantage of the growing population at MSU and the many thousands of auto workers in the region. They soon were collecting so much blood, it far exceeded the need and they began shipping it to other states. Nichols retired in 1990.

Retirement and Reflections

Nichols’ passion for service did not end with the Red Cross. He was soon involved with the board that created the Lansing Hospice Program. Using his connections, he was able to secure a large grant from the Dart Foundation, which led to the construction of Stoneleigh Hospice Care.

As part of the Rotary Club, Nichols was in charge of planning Lansing’s Sesquicentennial Celebration, raising over $500,000 for the festivities. The Rotary also raised $200,000 for the sculpture “Inspiration” which sits on the river walk trail in downtown Lansing. 

Nichols’ proudest accomplishment with the club, however, is the work they did with the “Lost Boys of Sudan.” The Rotary Club helped settle over 300 refugees from Sudan in the area. The club also annually supports a school in Sudan that is run by a former Lost Boy. 

In recognition of his international work, Nichols was honored on Sept. 14 of this year with the Lansing Sister Cities program’s annual award given to the region’s top contributor to international understanding.

Nichols spent much of his retirement years playing tennis. In his early days in East Lansing, he and some of his friends convinced a janitor at Lansing Eastern High School to let them in the gym at night so they could play during the winter. He gave up the sport at age 90 when he lost sight in his right eye.

Reflecting on his long and productive life, Nichols is quick to say that he is most proud of the way his three sons have lived their lives. He also quickly credits his wife for doing most of the work. His eldest son, John, worked in marketing in Colorado. His second son, Will, just retired from Alma College where he was the choral music director for 41 years. Taylor, his youngest, is an actor living in Los Angeles.

Nichols remains active in politics in the region. Both he and his wife were life-long Democrats, and he continues to work on campaigns. He voted for Harry Truman in 1948 and for every Democrat since. 

These days, Nichols has a new project (because every 100-year-old needs a project or two). He is working hard to get his driver’s license back. He lost it just a few months ago when two doctors told him he should no longer be allowed to drive.

He is writing to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson to let them know that the two doctors made a mistake and that he should be able to get his license back. With all the success he has had in helping countless others, it might not be wise to bet against seeing him on the road again.