THE HISTORY OF THE NICOL SCHOLARSHIP

Excerpt from Petrolia Independent:

In 1914, Harold Robert Madden Nicol enrolled in Grade 9 in what is now LCCVI. But before the school year was out, Nicol had lied about his age and entered the military to fight in the First World War. He was sent to the front in early 1916 and spent a week fighting one of the deadliest battles of the war, The Battle of the Somme before being injured by shrapnel from shells exploding beside him. When he arrived at the military hospital, officials figured out he was only 17 and sent him home with an honourable discharge.

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Back at home, Nicol felt too old to begin his high school career, so he took a year-long business course in Chatham. With the diploma in hand, Nicol’s headed to Chicago with his family in the middle of the roaring 20s famous for the exploits of its gangsters during prohibition years.

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He found a job with Western Electric which later became AT&T and worked there 44 years. Without a wife or children, Nicol had amassed a fortune of over $2 million. “That’s when he came up with the idea of a scholarship for the high school he had never attended,” says Doug Inglis, who wrote a book about Nicol.

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Excerpt from Petrolia Topic:

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Floyd Hull was Nicol's lawyer, and when Nicol learned he was terminally ill with cancer, this was the man who helped him to decide what to do with his fortune. From there, he created the Helen Kavanagh Nicol Scholarship, in honour of his mother and sister.

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After Nicol's death, Hull came to Petrolia every June to hand over the scholarships. “He and his wife would drive up from Fort Lauderdale every year,” Inglis said. “Back and forth all those years – I started thinking, why did he do it?” Inglis said that Nicol had mentioned to Hull that he wanted to make sure the kids got his money, and Hull, being his friend, lawyer and trustee, took this very seriously. After Hull's death, his son Michael along with his wife Karen, have come up to continue his work. Over the last 29 years, there have been 373 scholars who have received the honour.

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Inglis said that when writing the biography of Nicol, the hardest part was the ending. “Part way through Mr. Hull had told me that Mr. Nicol had taken his own life – it was so tough,” he said. “He knew he was dying and he was going to get worse. It would eat up his fortune in a United States hospital.” In a logical way, Nicol did this to ensure his money went where he wanted it to go – to those hard working kids of Petrolia who have a dream, just like he did.