Garlic Festival Director remembered for gentle nature, family
devotion and selfless contributions
Gilroy – They remembered him as gentle, humble, intelligent, organized and gracious. They remembered him as the executive director of the Gilroy Garlic Festival. But most of all they remembered him as a family man.
With tears and laughter, friends, family and Garlic Festival associates remembered Richard “Dick” Nicholls Saturday as hundreds gathered at the Gilroy Presbyterian Church to share memories of the executive director, the golfer, the 49er’s fan, the neat freak, the father and the husband who devoted two decades to Gilroy as head of the Garlic Festival Association.
Despite their grief, Brigitte Nicholls and 20-year-old twin sons, Jerrod and Justin, shared private moments and thoughts about the man so many people knew.
“He hated attention like this. That and the (Los Angeles) Dodgers,” said Jerrod, before breaking into tears.
“There are no words to describe the pain it is to lose someone like my dad,” said Justin. “As I sat by his side, there was so much I wanted to tell him and know. All it came down to was how much I loved him.”
Struggling to keep his voice steady, he said in the past few weeks, he told his father over and over how much he loved him. And he said to all those who don’t have the words to comfort the family, they understand that there aren’t always words.
After gathering himself, Jerrod spoke about how he keeps expecting to see his father.
“I keep thinking he will walk in with the mail in one hand and his briefcase in the other,” he said. “Part of me knows he won’t, but part of me hopes he will.”
Brigitte said the man who preferred to work behind the scenes would have been overwhelmed by all the attention of the funeral.
“He would have told me keep it simple,” she said. “These people have a life. It’s a Saturday afternoon. They need to go home.”
She said the day her husband died of pancreatic cancer, was a sad day for everyone, but it also was a joyous day.
“I do know that was the day Dick walked across that golden bridge and he met God who took his hand,” she said, adding that she believes God would have praised him for all he did on Earth. “But Dick would have said, ‘Wait a minute. I didn’t thank all the people back there.'”
She thanked her fellow employees at South Valley National Bank, as well as all the Garlic Festival Board and Association and family who have pulled together to help in a time of need.
“Thank you to the Gilroy community,” she said. “While we have lived in Salinas for seven or eight years, Gilroy has always been our home.”
Pastor Bruce Rowlison spoke of Nicholls – who was a long-time member of the Presbyterian Church – as a gentle man.
“When I asked friends and family about Nicholls, one quality stood out,” Rowlison said. “The first word they said was gentle. He was a gentle man, a person of character. We know Gilroy has lost one of its most gentle persons.”
Rowlison talked of the rarity of gentleness in a world where it is seen as a weakness and competitiveness is rewarded. He reminded the crowd that Jesus was gentle and the root of the word means a wild animal harnessed under control.
“He was strong enough to calm others when they were shouting in anger,” Rowlison said.
Friends of the family shared lighter memories of Nicholls. Gene Sakahara, a former Garlic Festival president, and with Sam Bozzo part of the Saka-Bozzo dynamic cooking and comedy team, recalled a time when the three of them had dinner at a crab shack.
The cooking team, always goofy compared to the more reserved Nicholls, were acting up when Nicholls tossed a crusty loaf of bread at them. Planning to get Nicholls back, they saved up their discarded crab legs and snuck into his hotel room.
“We hid the crab legs in his bed, in his pillow and even on the toilet seat,” Sakahara said. “But when we opened the closet and saw his shirts neatly pressed and organized, we didn’t go there. That is why we stand here before you today.”
Sakahara shared a more touching moment. When he served as Garlic Festival President, Nicholls had him on speed dial No. 2. Every so often, Sakahara would ask him if he was still No. 2 and Nicholls always said yes, eventually adding that he was also No. 2 in his heart.
“There is no doubt that speed dial No. 1 was Brigitte and his sons,” Sakahara added of the devoted family man. “Maya Angelou, an American poet, said ‘If I leave a monument let it be my sons’. Nicholls left twin monuments in his twin sons.”
Jennifer Speno, this year’s volunteer president of the Garlic Festival and Susan Valenta, Gilroy Chamber of Commerce director, reflected on the way the man has changed the Gilroy community.
“He had the ability to work with each and everyone of us,” Speno said. “It is bittersweet that the show must go on and it will be dedicated to him.”
Valenta recalled a conversation she had with Nicholls while he was in the hospital.
“I said, ‘Dick, I want to tell you something. Thank you for all you have done for Gilroy. You are appreciated. Our children have grown up into a culture of volunteerism,'” Valenta said.
His humble response was that it was part of the job.
“It’s your life mission and you have accomplished that mission,” Valenta told him.
A photographic slide show celebrated Nicholls life, reminding friends and family of many moments they shared with him. It was met with laughter and tears as images projected on the screen while “The Wind Beneath My Wings” and “How Do I Live Without You” played. An image of him as a toddler with a cowboy hat and shirt tucked into his underpants brought smiles to the faces of many, as did a photo of Nicholls many years later with teenage Jerrod and Justin sleeping next to him on the couch.
The service concluded at Gavilan Hills Memorial Park in a shady spot chosen to lay Nicholls to rest. The pallbearers, Garlic Festival board members, each laid a red rose and their white gloves on the casket before family members came forward one at a time to place a single flower each. Brigitte, Jerrod and Justin held hands as they came forward, taking their time in offering one more good-bye to the man they knew as a husband and father.
Jerrod said he is just realizing what a great man his father was. He added that he is honored to be carrying on the Nicholls name and ended his words with a joke.
“He’s up there and he’s watching over us,” Jerrod said. “And when I get there, he’ll be saving me a tee time. He has no choice because I have his golf clubs.”
The family is asking the community to come together for a blood drive in honor of Dick Nicholls July 2, 9am to 2pm at 7473 Monterey St. Please call Larry Mickartz at 848-6540 for more information.
