It is with sadness that I inform you that Tim Nichols passed away on Friday November 26 at his home in Foster, Rhode Island; he was 78. Tim received a BA from Harvard University in 1954 and a law degree from Columbia University Law School in 1959. Tim, however, was not "fond" of being a lawyer and "announced that he was going to be an abstract painter," and with that graduated from the Museum School Diploma program in 1968, went to Skowhegan in 1971 and received an MFA from Indiana University in 1974. Tim taught painting and drawing at the School until his retirement in 2006.

Tim was a passionate artist and lover of poetry whose convictions about art roared from the deep reaches of his marvelous and cantankerous heart. In the 1989 November issue of Art New England, Marc Mannheimer wrote this about Tim's painting: "Tim Nichols has a lustrous way of working paint, drawing color together and combining form, meaning, emotion and innuendo to present us with wonderfully realized works." And Christine Temin in response to the same work said, "The brushwork looks wild, as if the artist has thrown his whole body into every stroke."

Drawing Breath, the drawing course that Tim taught all day on Wednesdays, filled room A202 with unfurled rolls of brown paper, cut and torn, collaged, constructed, marked and spattered with wet and dry media. It was the spontaneous and performative dimension of collaborative work in Drawing Breath that drew comments from students like, "it was like jazz improvisation with each player feeding off the energy of the others."

Tim eschewed trendiness. To the degree that any of us can believe without doubt in the authenticity of our inner selves, Tim did it with an engrossing passion that was infectious. And without dogma, that caring, passion and commitment was passed on to his students.

Tim loved the outdoors. He gardened at his home in Rhode Island, hiked in the woods where he hunted arrowheads, of which he had a sizable collection, and was an avid birder. He was the beloved husband of Judith, proud father of three children Jamie, Kim and Tim, and a grandfather of two. Max, his loyal Scottish Terrier loved him too.

It is the family's wish that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Timothy F. Nichols Drawing Breath Award and be sent to: School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Development Office, 230 The Fenway, Boston, MA 02115.

This exchange with Tim early one morning in the atrium will stay with me forever: Me, "Hi, there." Tim, "My name is not There."

—Dean of Faculty, Fritz Buehner