The Farmers’ Son
By Henry Piarrot
"I have but one
candle of life to burn, and I would rather burn it out in a land filled with darkness than in a land flooded with light" - 19th Century Missionary John Keith Falconer
Born May 10, 1945, Donald Ray Nichols was a small boy when Tom Hall married his mother Eddie Loy and became his dad. In his parents’ strict and Godly home, young Don and his 8 siblings learned early on that life is not easy, but it is almost always what you make of it. Like most farm kids, he had morning chores to perform before the long bus ride to
school and a few more before supper and homework. Weekends and summers he worked with his dad to truck the vegetables they grew and the turkeys they raised to market.
Prior to graduating from Greenville High School in 1963, Don was provided the means to cultivate his leadership abilities as a member of the Future
Farmers of America. The FFA’s motto is “
Learning to Do, Doing to Learn, Earning to Live, Living to Serve.” During this time, he won accolades as a public speaker and also became the corn growing champion of Butler County.
Former US President Ulysses S. Grant opened the preface of his personal memoirs with
“Man proposes; and God disposes.” This profound observation was true then, and was still true when it became time for Don to enter veterinarian school. Specifically, upon enrolling, he realized how long it would take to pay back the tuition and decided that he did not want to be in debt for years. So, he passed on college and went to Montgomery to buy a restaurant instead.As a result, the farmers’ son began what would turn into a 40 year career in the food and beverage business, eventually becoming one of the industry’s leading authorities.
In the mid-1970’s he placed the 1st salad bar in the 1st Bonanza restaurant and spent the rest of the decade helping create and install other innovations that are now commonplace. Variations of the food bar concept initially introduced by Bonanza then is still alive in restaurants such as Ryan’s Steakhouses and Golden Corals today. Nevertheless, few things in life are free and the time away from home ultimately led to the end of his 15 year marriage. Then, in 1980, Don married again. At that time Paula, the daughter of a Baptist preacher, was also the nursing supervisor of surgery at a hospital in Florence, Alabama. To make a new start on life, the couple eventually transferred to Tennessee when he accepted a job as the food & beverage director for a Holiday Inn in Cookeville, owned by Cooper Hotel Group.
By 1994, Don was working in Gatlinburg when Kay Collier of Smoky Mountain Resorts became interested in building a convention center in Pigeon Forge. Looking for advice, she was led to Don Nichols. He still has the legal pad he used to draw the first sketches of what would, in September of 1995 open as The Smoky Mountain Convention Center. Nichols is now the vice president of sales and marketing for Collier‘s company.
As active members of the First Baptist Church of Pigeon Forge, Don and Paula became involved in medical missionary work in Africa and the Middle East. Not long ago, the organization that planned the African missions decided not to go there any longer. So, the inspired couple formed
The Healing Evangelical Ministry (THEM.) Last month Paula led their first medical mission to Kenya. Eighteen volunteers paid their own way to help people few others even cared existed. Carrying $400,000 worth of donated medications, 4 nurses, a dentist, a doctor and a construction crew from Knoxville, treated 1,400 people in 10 days. According to Nichols, “
347 of them openly accepted Jesus Christ as their savior.”With the creation of their ministry, Don and Paula Nichols have answered a new calling to serve and believe their retirement will be even more gratifying than their long impressive careers.
Henry Piarrot is a hotel manager in Sevier County, TN. Please send all story recommendations to hpiarrot@yahoo.com.