C. B. HARMAN NICHOLSON
(in Scotland, Harman Nicholson of Balvenie)
8 October 1920 – 24 April 2009
Charles Beck Harman Nicholson, also recognized in Scotland as the Baron of Balvenie, passed away on 24 April 2009 at the age of 88. A native of Columbus, Georgia, he was a pioneer of the Coca–Cola business in Italy, where he lived for thirty-seven years. Having served as Chairman of two subsidiaries of The Coca– Cola Export Corporation in Italy, he retired in Atlanta in 1985 after thirty–nine years of service with the Company.
After joining the Coca-Cola Com- pany in New York in 1946, he served as a sales representative in Vienna, Austria and was assigned in 1948 to Milan, Italy where he held various senior managerial positions including Deputy General Manager of the Italian Division. In Milan he was also a Director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Italy and of the American Relief Society. He also had brief Company assignments in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and in London, England.
Born 8 October 1920, the second son of the late Hammond Burke Nicholson, former Chairman of The Coca–Cola Company, and the late Lucia Meetze Harman Nicholson, Harman was a descendant of Duncan Nicholson, born 1777 in the Hebrides Isles of Scotland.
After attending schools in Atlanta, Toronto and London, the latter at King’s Col- lege School and King’s College, University of London, he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts (in English Literature) at Princeton University in 1942.
During World War II, he served in the Army of the United States in Europe and prior to his discharge in 1946 held the rank of Second Lieutenant, QMC and Adjutant in the Seventh Army in Germany.
Following his retirement, he pursued his longtime interest in Scottish matters and he and his late brother, Burke Nicholson of Balvenie, became Founders in Edinburgh of the New Museum of Scotland and major sup- porters of the recently completed restoration of the Thistle Chapel of Saint Giles Cathedral.
As Baron of Balvenie, Harman was the holder of the ancient Castle of Balvenie in Dufftown, Banffshire where he also was Honorary President of the Dufftown and District Highland Games, Patron of the Dufftown Horticultural Society and a Benefactor of the ancient Mortlach Church there.
For over two decades, he was deeply involved in the affairs of the Highland Clan MacNicol worldwide as Archivist to the Chief, Chieftain, and Chairman of The Highland Clan MacNeacail Federation since 2008. A Founding Member and Director of the Clan MacNicol Society of North America, and a Trustee of Urras Clann MhicNeacail on the Isle of Skye in Scotland he participated in the purchase and reforestation of the ancestral Clan land on the Isle.
Harman was the Editor and sponsor of the definitive book of the Clan’s history, The Highland Clan MacNeacail (MacNicol), a History of the Nicolsons of Scorrybreac, co-authored by the now Lord Lyon King of Arms, W. David H. Sellar and the late Dr. Alasdair Maclean. By his outstanding generosity, he made it possible for every active member of the Clan MacNicol worldwide to receive a complimentary copy of this history, a gift which will extend to all future new members of the Clan.
In Atlanta, he played a significant philanthropic role. He donated the Nicholson Gallery to the new Museum of the Atlanta Historical Society, and was a major contributor to the Olympics Monument at Pershing Point, as well as a Patron of the High Museum of Art, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and the Atlanta Opera.
He was also a member of the Capital City Club in Atlanta, the Princeton Club of New York, the English–Speak- ing Union and the Churchill Society. As a Life Member of
the President’s Club of Mercer University, he endowed the Nicholson Scholarship for a semester’s undergraduate study at Oxford University in England.
An active communicant of St. Martin in the Fields Episcopal Church, Harman endowed the Nicholson Hall and the new church organ.
He was a bachelor and the third of five brothers and sisters (all of them Clan members), of whom surviving is Mar- tha Carolyn Nicholson Worley of Atlanta, Georgia. Deceased are John Hurt Nicholson (Atlanta 1992), Lucia Harman Nich- olson Lines (Toronto, Canada 2000), and Burke Nicholson of Balvenie (Atlanta 2007).
Harman is also survived by one niece living in Canada and eight nephews living in the United States. He bequeathed the Barony and Castle of Balvenie to his nephew, Jeremy Duncan Nicholson of Atlanta, who has been visiting Scotland and Dufftown annually since 1997 and has held senior positions in the Highland Clan MacNicol in North America, Scotland and worldwide.
The funeral for Harman was held on 30 April in Atlanta and attended by his large extended family, as well as the Chief of the Clan, John MacNeacail of MacNeacail and Scorrybreac who, along with his wife Jenni, flew over from their home in Ballina, New South Wales, Australia to participate in the ceremony.
Also present were several senior dignitaries from the Clan: Murray Nicolson of Concord, Massachusetts, High Commissioner for the Americas; and Bill R. Nicol, Secretary of the North American Clan Society, with his wife Joan of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. All living former Presidents of the Clan Society were in attendance: in addition to Murray, Bill G. Nicol with his wife Shelley drove over from Springfield, Illinois - Bill piped most movingly at the funeral and the burial; and Bill Nicholson (one of Harman’s surviving nephews) with his wife Maura from Hiram, Georgia who were also part of the family group.