I met Nicky in the fall of 1974 when I attended an audition for his summer drama ministry. He had launched the Academy of Arts in 1971 after earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees at BJU, but I knew nothing about him. I went to the audition on a whim, having heard about it from my college friend Alan Behn, who also was auditioning. Somehow I was chosen for the team. Alan wasn’t. I know that Nicky regretted his decision occasionally, but he never said so. Despite my immaturity and “wild and crazy guy” posture, he saw something in me that he wanted.
I toured with the drama team in the summers of ’75 and ’77. At other times Nicky would routinely call me to come help him on some project, usually as a voice actor. One time he recruited me to fly up to Louisville, Ky. to retrieve a van that a team had left for repairs. I’m not sure that he realized this, but his operating principle was “You do everything you can for me and I will do everything I can for you.” That could result in misunderstandings or disappointments. Various people parted from him over the years, finding the arrangement intolerable. Others stayed. The ministry flourished.
He was very much like a father to me. When I had problems or needed advice, I turned to him. His mind was very quick and his grasp of the Scriptures was sure and deft. For years afterward I would approach problems thinking “What would Nicky do?”
Once I finally grew up, we had an unusual consonance of outlook. There was probably no one whose views about the root causes of things impressed me more than his did. Likewise he expressed profound appreciation for the analyses I offered on the basis of my scholarly attainments. He told me that he wanted me to come and teach at his ministry for a week some time, but that never materialized; he was largely retired by then.
As 2020 drew to a close, the thought often came to me that I needed to visit Nicky again. Finally I decided in February to take a road trip and head to Greenville to see if I could scare up him or some other friends. (As it turned out, I encountered there the aforementioned Alan Behn, whom I hadn’t seen for forty years — but that’s another story.) Much to my surprise, I found Nicky on his death bed, failing with liver disease. His condition was no secret to his supporters across the nation, but it hadn’t been mentioned in the emails I received from the ministry, so I was unaware.
Quite a few friends and admirers visited him in those final months, so I was little more than a paragraph in that day’s page; and every day was a new page filled with visitors, cards, and well wishes.
We weren’t able to converse like old times, due to the presence of others, but we still shared a laugh when I reminded him of our first meeting at the audition and he couldn’t imagine why he would choose me over Alan (who later served for years as an important staff member of the ministry). I hadn’t a clue, either.
He saw something in me, and it made a real difference in my life to have him in my corner. He mentored thousands through the summer teams, the Christian School Drama Seminars, his pastorate and school and conservatory, and his plays, songs, and books. I’m like a dwarf in comparison, and grateful to have been his friend.