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Today's Featured Biography

 
Jane Donald Nicholson

The Last 50 Years…the important stuff

PEOPLE AND RELATIONSHIPS: I had a 40 year, happy marriage to John Nicholson (Lawrence High ’66) which ended when he died in 2010. It is a different life than the one I thought I would be living, but much is still good — I am very close to my 2 sons (Patrick 34, a Neurology Fellow and Paul 31, studying to be a Nurse Anesthetist). Both are living for the time being in Salt Lake City, which is only 90 miles from my home in Logan. I get together often with family, and have wonderful friends. I am so thankful to have reconnected with Jean Slentz and Beverly Hanger in recent years.

GEOGRAPHY: My mid-western, suburban/urban life trajectory took an abrupt turn when I moved to the Mountain West in my twenties. Skiing (downhill, back-country, cross country), fly fishing, backpacking, hiking, biking, windsurfing all became joyful activities in this new life. I have lived in UT since 1977 and before that a few years in WY.

WORK: I doubt anyone would say that I had a "BIG" career as a high school classroom teacher for 30 years, but it was very fulfilling and, I think, an important job. I spent most of those years teaching various levels of German. Working with bright, young people -- they were interesting, challenging, inspiring, exasperating,… — was never boring.

LIFE’S CHALLENGES: Eight years ago my healthy, athletic husband who never smoked was diagnosed with lung cancer. He (we) lived 2 years with the disease. I did not expect to be facing my retirement years alone, needing to re-map the geography of my life, but I really have no other choice. Of course, there have been other, rather normal challenges in the last 50 years — but nothing that compares to facing terminal disease and then the loss of a spouse.

TRAVEL: Family life with 2 teachers (John taught Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning at Utah State University and I taught at Logan High) offered time to see the world. In addition to summers off, we had 3 sabbatical years in Germany (Bremen, Dresden, Bernburg) Living abroad was an amazing opportunity for growth -- often not easy, but definitely enriching. Occasionally leaving my comfort zone has been a good thing -- it can shake things up and offer a new context for evaluating the important stuff.

PASSIONS: My CHILDREN, enjoying EXERCISE and NATURE (preferably at the same time), TRAVEL (to any beach, Mexico, southern Utah, Europe – I’ve been there 18 times,…). A few years ago I spent a month living in Oaxaca , MX attending a language immersion program – a great experience which I hope to repeat. Learning Spanish for an old German teacher has been lots of fun.

It is my goal to live thoughtfully with a reverence for the PEOPLE I care about and the PLANET, to stay curious, active and involved.
Jane Donald Nicholson

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