James Cason Nichols, III, known as Nick, was born the third child of James Cason Nichols, Junior and Ruth Phillips Nichols at the Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee. Shortly after his birth the family moved to South Carolina. Nick, who was consistently an outstanding straight “A” student in school was also an athlete, playing on his high school basketball and baseball teams. In his junior year at Wade Hampton Academy, he scored in the top two percentile of all United States students on the college SAT exams. As a National Merit Scholar, he received several recruiting invitations from major U.S. universities. He graduated from the University of South Carolina with a Bachelor of Science in Biology and worked after college as a laboratory technician for the University of Mississippi Hospital in Jackson, Mississippi. When his parents relocated to California, Nick joined them and helped manage a family shipping and mailing business in San Marcos, California until the business was sold and he retired. He is survived by his sisters, Janet Nichols Whitney and Elizabeth (Lib) Nichols Alston, his niece Sara Pfeifer and his great niece, Sophia Duarte. His maternal grandparents were William Reid Phillips and Elizabeth Bozardt Phillips of Stantonville, Tennessee and his paternal grandparents were James Cason Nichols, Senior and Evelyn Pegues Nichols of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Services will be held at a later date.