O.C. INSIDER: Nichols’ Quest for Life Never Ended; Waitress Celebrity
by Rick Reiff
As an internist, endocrinologist, medical testing pioneer, entrepreneur, outdoorsman and philanthropist, Al Nichols spent a lifetime living life and discovering its inner workings. How fitting that when he died in his sleep at his Aspen, Colo. home recently, the 67-year-old founder of Nichols Institute (now Quest Diagnostics) was contemplating life’s deepest questions. A book at his side was opened to poems from “Faust,” Goethe’s metaphysical epic about life and death. Some of the lines were read when 400 of Nichols’ friends and admirers remembered him at the Four Seasons Newport Beach. An excerpt: “O glowing moon, didst thou but shine, A last time on this pain of mine, Behind this desk how oft have I at midnight seen thee rising high o’er books and papers
Then freed from knowledge and its pain, Bathed in thy dew my health I’d gain”
OC’s fast-growing Alzheimer’s Association has retained O’Shea, Divine & Co. to find it a CEO to handle planning, board development and fundraising. Executive director Linda Scheck will continue to run operations as COO. Full-time staff has gone from nine to 29 in seven years … How often does waitress Sarah Jones get asked by patrons of Houston’s in Irvine about her role in CBS’ upcoming “Survivor: Marquesas” series? Twenty times a day, she told EE RR, who counts as one
When you invite Michael Jackson and Liz Taylor to an event, you may not get a lot of their time, but you’ll get a full entourage. An estimated 50 bodyguards and other associates accompanied the two stars on their half-hour visit to the Laguna Art Museum Feb. 9 for an AIDS benefit. Michael wore black, but sans mask or gloves and stayed by Liz’s side
OC lawmakers have Enron covered. Joe Dunn’s Senate panel on energy-price manipulation wants contempt charges against Enron, while Lou Correa’s Assembly professions committee is looking into accounting reforms (see page 75)
How can a team that includes Jack Norberg, Dick Sim, Clarence Barker, Ted Smith, Bruce Clark, Mary Curran and EE RR lose the Chief Executive Roundtable basketball shoot Feb. 23 at the Bren Center? It can’t. The halftime event, in its fourth year, has raised over $300,000 for UCI sports scholarships
They’re engaged: Cox Communications spokeswoman Marty Zajic and Dan De Sollar, senior program manager for Thales Raytheon Systems in Fullerton
Coming to OC: Rudy Giuliani, at a $1,000-a-plate lunch for GOP gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon, Feb. 25 at the Pacific Club
OCBJ production director Jill Tangredi is back at work, with pictures of Marcus Alexander Tangredi, “the world’s most beautiful baby.” He looks a lot like his dad, Doug Tangredi
What does Larry Higby, now top dog at Apria Healthcare, get in his office regularly that you probably don’t? Faxes from the White House.
