I first met Nick more than twenty years ago when he came to the US to work with me at Plessey Microsystems. Shortly after he and Terry arrived, I took them for a tour of their new hometown area. We stopped at the Washington Cathedral as I was very proud of it and wanted to show it off to them.

Upon our entrance Nick wanted to know why it was built the way it  was …something about the nave windows and the aisle stain glass  windows being  “inverted in size”….”not at all like English cathedrals”   This of course came after I told him that it had been modeled on English cathedrals by an American architect… This came as an introduction to Nick’s huge knowledge base of the world.

I was fortunate to be invited to sing with the group that Terry and Nick belonged to in Frederick, the Frederick Singers.  It was a fun group to sing with and as usual Nick and Terry added their special talents in a way that really enriched us all.

One night after a performance, in a local church, Nick mused that “it would really be nice to have a cathedral of my own”   This always stuck with me through the years and surfaced again with his passing. Why not a memorial for Nick, surely he has brought an immense amount of pleasure and joy to those lucky enough to know him…

I am told that on Sir Christopher Wren’s tomb in St. Paul’s Cathedral it is written:

“If you require a monument to me, look around you”.

Well… we have no such material monument to Nick, but we do have an even better one; it is a cathedral Nick constructed in our minds. It is made, not from stone and glass, but from the years and years of wonderful memories of him. It is buttressed with our love for him and its spires are constructed with his love for all of us.

Not a day has gone by, since his untimely passing, that I do not spend some time roaming around in Nick’s Cathedral. I am a very lucky person to have known and loved him.

David Garrison