Nickolas Rowe might best be remembered for his voice. Warm, resonant, full of compassion and confidence, and flavoured with the British accent he couldn’t quite lose, Nick’s voice is still powerful. There are digital recordings of the Christmas stories and poetry he recited, the podcast "Alternative Way" he’d created, and hours of dictated essays on his computers.
His was a strong bass voice. Nick trained for a short while as a singer. He performed in Gilbert and Sullivan musicals, annual productions of "Messiah" and little theatre plays, but stage fright issues meant he struggled. He loved listening to Neil Diamond, the Amazing Blondel, the King’s Singers and spirituals. Each night, before retiring, he would sing “Swing Low Sweet Chariot”, delighting his wife Debra with his expressive and interpretive variety.
Always unconventional, Nick was a fiercely independent thinker. He felt passionately about equality for women, the havoc wreaked by Christianity, and about the devastating effects of pollution. He dearly wanted electric vehicles to be more affordable. He always ensured he had good air cleaning and water filtering systems in his home, and he instigated energy-efficient improvements. He taught himself computer and internet skills, and spent hours researching, pondering and writing out his thoughts.
A voracious reader, Nick especially loved the works of Georgette Heyer, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Nevil Shute. He balanced his intellectual pursuits with practical jobs. Nick was proud of the many carpentry projects he carried out, from creating partition walls to fixing back steps to installing laminate flooring.
When he discovered an interest, he went all in. Deciding he liked lentils, Nick would cook mountains of them. He drank gallons of carrot juice before figuring out he wasn’t that fond of the taste. Fascinated by weaving, he bought top-of-the-line looms and industrial-sized spools of cotton. He quickly produced yards of brightly-coloured fabrics. Nick taught himself crochet, repeating the single crochet stitch in long strings for days. Amazingly, a few weeks later, he completed a beautiful cowl-necked sweater he designed himself. It fitted him perfectly and attracted many compliments. Nick turned out hundreds of earrings after discovering beading, and designed and created raised beds when he thought he might like to garden.
As an intellectual pursuit, Nick was a skilled, competitive chess player. On the physical side, he loved racquet sports, especially squash, playing at the local YMCA four times a week. As a youth in England he delighted in playing cricket and continued following professional cricket matches throughout his life. Even ping pong intrigued him. He carefully studied trajectories, friction, and muscle movements while working out devastating shots.
He was proud of his work as a printer and as a teacher of English as a second language. But Nick’s most deeply felt calling was to help individuals express their creativity. He blended his strong intuition with therapeutic skills he learned during his time at the Therafields community, and with his personal experiences of the Alexander Technique. He successfully coached many clients in his decades-long career as a psychotherapist. Unusually, Nick was startlingly clear with self-analysis. In both client relations and friendships, he would take time to analyze a conversation. If he concluded he’d been mistaken, he wouldn’t hesitate to call back, admit it, and work out another path. He treasured the relationships he laboured hard to maintain; with his clients, with his friends, and with his found family.
Nick worked hard to overcome his own personal tragedy of being sent away to a cruel boarding school when he was 8 years old. He found writing to be both a solace and a challenge. He wrote many unpublished articles on issues that drew his attention, and completed one mystery novel. He was at work on a second novel more than half finished.
He was allergic to rules and routines, spoke up loudly on protecting children from abuse, and often took the medical profession to task for its shortcomings. He was charmed by his pet cat Kaila, enjoying her colourful personality and confident independence.
Slow to anger, quick to forgive, Nick could get impatient with things and systems but never people. Always on the lookout to make life easier, smoother, and better, he would buy an extra screwdriver rather than waste time searching for a lost one. He would skimp on household purchases in order to spend lavishly on creative tools like musical instruments and computers.
Life was to be savoured and enjoyed, suffering avoided, and creativity nourished.
A firm believer in the many life-after-life, near death experiences he’d read about Nick would want us to celebrate a life well-lived. He would wish any memorial donations to be made to Greenpeace Canada. Arrangements entrusted to Simcoe Cremation Service.