Cheryl K. Nicholas

Cheryl K. Nicholas passed away at the age of 54 on June 3, 2010. The cause of her death was breast cancer, which she and her doctors had managed for the past 17 years. Ms. Nicholas had worked as a summer associate at Brobeck Phleger and Harrison in Los Angeles and San Francisco and as a real estate lawyer at Goldstein Manello in Boston. Ms. Nicholas also served the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the late 1980s as the head of the Massachusetts Agricultural Preservation Restriction Program, the state's farmland preservation program. In that capacity, Ms. Nicholas traveled throughout the Commonwealth in order to find important farmland and open space that the Commonwealth could preserve through the purchase of development rights.

Ms. Nicholas was born in Detroit, Michigan, and moved to Plymouth, Michigan near Ann Arbor, after her father had a stroke. She attended the Honors Program at the University of Michigan, and earned a B.A. in History in 1977, and also attended Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, for one semester. After graduating from the University of Michigan, Ms. Nicholas attended the Harvard Divinity School with a fellowship, and earned a Masters of Theological Studies degree in 1981. While at the Harvard Divinity School, she had particular interests in the relationship of architecture to spirituality and in feminist theology. She subsequently attended Boalt Hall at the University of California at Berkeley, where she earned a J.D. in 1985.

Ms. Nicholas was voracious reader who was interested in history, philosophy, religion, urban planning, architecture and politics. She married Brett Robbins, now a partner at Ropes Gray LLP in Boston, in 1981, and gave birth to her daughter, Kelsey London Robbins, in 1988 and her son, Brennan Nicholas Robbins, in 1991. She was extremely dedicated to her children, and ceased working professionally after they were born. She nonetheless remained active in her community, devoting energy to causes that moved her. She was a board member of the Weston Land Trust, and an active member, and for some time President, of the League of Women Voters of the Town of Weston. She supported political efforts in favor of conservation land, agricultural land, and organic farming, and opposed governmental projects that, as planned, would adversely affect wetlands and conservation land.

Ms. Nicholas's family and friends found her fascinating, profoundly intellectual, elegant and, most of all, empathetic and kind. She disliked hierarchy and class distinctions, and continually supported the disadvantaged. She was always open to new ideas, and easily made deep connections with those whom she encountered.

Ms. Nicholas is survived by her husband, Brett Robbins, her daughter, Kelsey London Robbins, who is attending Brown University, and her son, Brennan Robbins, who will graduate Milton Academy this month and will attend Princeton University in the fall. Ms. Nicholas also is survived by two sisters, Susan Nicholas and Margaret Bake, three brothers, David Nicholas, Roland Nicholas, and Harold Nicholas, and a host of nephews, nieces and cousins. One of her sisters, Dorothy Noblet, is recently deceased.