Alan Douglas Nicholson

Alan Nicholson died of natural causes in Helena on 18 October 2026, aged 86, surrounded by his family. His family's obituary, published by the Billings Gazette and the Helena Independent Record, thanked his home health and hospice carers. He was predeceased by his parents and his brothers Rob and Jim, and survived by his wife, Nancy; his children Paul, Kristin, Chris, Aaron and Molly; four grandchildren; his brother Ken and his sister Linda Ravnikar.

A celebration of life was arranged for Sunday 15 November 2026 at 2pm in the Helena Civic Center ballroom. The family asked for donations to the Helena Education Foundation, ExplorationWorks or Helena Food Share in place of flowers.

Alan Douglas Nicholson was born in Billings, Montana, on 19 June 1940, to Fred and Helen (Hammargren) Nicholson. He grew up in Roundup, the eldest of five children, fishing the Musselshell and Yellowstone rivers and playing football and golf at Roundup High School.

He went on to Montana State College in Bozeman to study mathematics, hoping for a career in aerospace. In the winter of 1961, in his final year, his father was killed in a car accident on an icy road. At 21 he returned home to help his mother and siblings, completing his degree by correspondence in 1962 while helping to run and renovate the Sage Motel his father had built. With federal funding for science education that followed Sputnik, he studied at Northwestern University, earning a master's degree in mathematics in 1967 and completing all but the dissertation of a doctorate. His family said his years in Chicago shaped his lifelong commitment to the Democratic Party.

Nicholson began as a teacher, first in Belfry and then teaching math and science at Billings West High School. In 1970 he moved to Helena as math and science supervisor for the Montana Office of Public Instruction, travelling the state to work with teachers and districts and helping to secure National Science Foundation support for science and mathematics education.

He had been interested in real estate since college and eventually took a sabbatical from his state job that became permanent. He built the apartment complexes Claimstake, Sylvan Haus and Serendipity (now the Fire Tower Apartments), along with condominiums and houses, and developed the neighbourhood around Touchstone to bring together people of different incomes. He took inspiration from Frank Lloyd Wright. In the late 1970s he pushed back against urban renewal, helping to preserve the Power Block and Securities Building and renovating the New York Store building. He also built, owned or managed other downtown properties including the Medical Arts Block, and helped introduce tax increment financing to downtown Helena.

In the late 1990s he turned to an abandoned Great Northern railroad spur near 14th Street. After earlier attempts by himself and the city to acquire the site failed, he bought the land from Montana Rail Link and created the Great Northern Town Center, a mixed use district of shops, offices, homes and public spaces. A lifelong lover of carousels, he built the Great Northern Carousel there with native animals. He gave land and other resources for ExplorationWorks, Helena's science centre for children.

He chaired the Montana Board of Public Education and served on boards supporting the Myrna Loy Center and Montana State University.

Nicholson married his high school sweetheart, Susan Polich, in 1961, and they had two children, Paul and Kristin; they divorced in 1973. In 1978 he and Patricia Emineth had a son, Aaron. His efforts to stay involved in Aaron's life led him to campaign at the Legislature, and he helped change Montana's joint custody laws in 1981.

In 1983 he met Nancy Morris McDonnell at a T-ball game in Billings, and they married on 8 December 1984. He and Nancy's son Chris adopted each other two years later, and their daughter Molly was born in 1994. The family hosted exchange students from Sweden, Germany and Spain and travelled widely. Nancy and Alan joined other parents in challenging Montana's school funding system, which the Montana Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional in 2005, and they were founding donors to Helena Food Share's new centre.

His favourite place was the family property at Finley Point on Flathead Lake, bought by his parents in 1942, where he and Nancy spent several months each year. His family described him as original, contrarian and often visionary, never hesitant to speak his mind.

His family wrote that he "changed the face of Helena, the laws of Montana, and the lives of those around him". The Great Northern Town Center, with its carousel and science centre, remains the clearest mark of his work and has drawn interest from other cities in the West. His role in preserving historic buildings on Last Chance Gulch, in changing Montana's joint custody law and in the school funding case that reached the Montana Supreme Court extended his influence well beyond real estate.