A Tribute to Fred Nicholas
Frederick M. Nicholas passed away peacefully at his home on Saturday, June 28, 2025. He was 105. Other people occasionally reach this milestone, but very few can claim a century-plus life as extraordinary as Fred’s – distinguished not only by an amazing breadth of experience, but even more rarely, by a combined sense of compassion, social concern, and cultural responsibility demonstrated time and again. War hero, lawyer, businessman, benefactor and philanthropist, civic leader, adored family man – Nicholas lived large. His friends are legion, for good reason.
The forces that shape courage, selflessness, and commitment – hallmarks of a life of greatness -- are mysterious. There’s no way to predict whether the first-hand ordeals of wartime, for example, will produce heroism or cowardice. The former characterized Nicholas’s military service in World War II, and bravery and a commitment to the larger good became the key elements underlying his subsequent achievements.
In 1941, America called. It needed him. He went. As an Army officer, he pursued Rommel across North Africa and participated in the invasion of Sicily, driving the Germans out of Italy. In 1945, he was shipped to the Philippines to prepare for the invasion of Tokyo. At the time of his 105th birthday, Nicholas was one of the oldest surviving World War II veterans, and, with a Bronze Star and Purple Heart, one of the most decorated.
But perhaps the most formative episode during his military service was his stint as an M.P. in a Japanese-American re-location camp at the Tanforan Race Track near San Francisco. Appalled by the suffering at hand, at great peril the 21-year-old Nicholas smuggled the internees food, other essentials, and belongings from their homes. The experience left him with an indelible moral compass, and taught him that the individual citizen acting out of a sense of justice could make a profound difference in the lives of others. From this sprang his lifelong commitment to social and civic activism.
After his war service, Nicholas worked as a journalist covering the longshoremen’s strike in Hawaii, and then he earned a law degree. In Los Angeles he became a successful attorney specializing in real estate law and development, but he soon realized that he could apply much of his private-sector expertise to the public sector. Inspired by consumer advocate Ralph Nader, who urged lawyers to give back to society, Fred founded— in a one-room office, with his own funding— Public Counsel, providing free legal services to abandoned children, homeless families, veterans, senior citizens, consumer fraud victims, and nonprofit organizations serving low-income communities. Today, with a 140-member staff and thousands of volunteers, Public Counsel is the nation’s largest resource of its kind.
Characteristically, Nicholas didn’t name Public Counsel after himself, preferring to act quietly without attracting attention. As with everything he undertook before and since, he believed in simply doing the right thing.
This selflessness came to the fore in the 1980s, when Downtown Los Angeles, like the Army decades before, called. Nicholas’s combined legal and real-estate development skills were precisely what was needed to help overcome a prolonged stasis in the City’s cultural arena. Nicholas promptly volunteered his expertise, and over the next twenty years he led the creation of two of Downtown’s landmark projects, The Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA), and the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Both brought Los Angeles to the national and international vanguard of contemporary architecture and culture.
At MoCA, Nicholas used his customary diplomacy to deftly negotiate the shoals of competing personalities among the founding trustees. Together with director Richard Koshalek, Nicholas made the fledgling museum a reality. He led the Board during the glory years of acquiring major collections and building the endowment. Under his aegis, MoCA quickly became one of the world’s most acclaimed museums of contemporary art.
This success set the stage for Nicholas’s crowning cultural achievement in Los Angeles: his leadership throughout the design and development of the Walt Disney Concert Hall – arguably the greatest architectural masterpiece in the City’s history. As chair of the Walt Disney Hall Concert Committee beginning in 1987, and operating largely behind the scenes (again, pro bono), Nicholas adroitly assembled working groups drawn from various constituents to select an architect and acoustician, raise funds, and formulate the building process. His architecture selection committee united the impeccably credentialed heads of LA’s top museums and architecture schools. They awarded the project to Frank Gehry, who had hitherto been bypassed for major commissions in his own hometown. As much as anything, Fred’s advocacy enabled Gehry to invent the magnificent edifice that now sails at the corner of Grand Avenue and First Street.
Never during his eight-year tenure at Disney Hall did Nicholas ask to have his name placed on any of the building’s exterior or interior spaces. The finished masterpiece -- and the resulting leap in the international stature of music in Los Angeles -- were his reward. With this achievement, Fred joined the generation of great civic leaders who emerged in the 1980s to establish Los Angeles’s standing as a world capital.
He then took his skills to other cities, with similar acclaim. He developed the $900 million Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, Washington D.C.’s largest building after the Pentagon. And he returned to the Tanforan Race Track in San Francisco, where he built a shopping center and dedicated a memorial to the Japanese Americans confined there when the site was a re-location camp. As ever, he masterfully negotiated the labyrinthine details inherent to these massive projects—orchestrating personalities, positions, power, and funds to reach the desired outcomes.
Perhaps Fred’s finest achievement, however, is the one best known by those in his private sphere: adored family man. Throughout his life, Fred has exemplified the roles of patriarch, husband, father, confidante, supporter, and bestower of limitless affection to his family. His love is returned by all, and by the many friends fortunate to be admitted to his closest circle.
Throughout his extraordinary life Fred has wrought positive outcomes in everything he’s undertaken. Everyone he has encountered, past and present, has benefited from his indomitable spirit and grace. Immeasurably more than most, Fred has truly made the world a better place.
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“Fred Nicholas had an unwavering belief in the benefit that the arts and culture, amplified through its institutions, could provide accessibility to the best of Los Angeles for everyone. Through that belief and his tireless work pushing that idea forward, Los Angeles and our collective civic landscape have been forever transformed for the better, and importantly, for all.
He was a quiet but deeply effective leader for Los Angeles’s future at a pivotal moment. He threw himself into this role just as LA was growing into a major metropolis with influence and economic position resonating worldwide. While it was likely that Los Angeles would continue to grow in population and economic power, it wasn’t inevitable that it would become the global cultural leader that we take for granted now. Fred understood the city would need a “civic armature” of cultural institutions supporting the vibrant, diverse, and forward-facing creative culture blossoming in Los Angeles.
Seemingly without ego, Fred committed himself to helping shepherd the city in that transitional moment toward a profound civic transformation that we largely take for granted today. That transformation changed the cityscape physically, but even more importantly his work was instrumental in evolving expectations and attitudes within the city about the role of culture. He helped shift the perception of culture and its relevance, from that of a limited and isolated luxury, into the fundamental lifeblood and pulse of Los Angeles. His work was essential in putting Los Angeles on a path, that we now think of as inevitable, toward becoming a cultural leader on the international stage that it is today.
Fred was a genuine champion of anyone who shared his hopes for a more positive and optimistic future Los Angeles. He was selfless in his help supporting those individuals and groups, often lending a hand at exactly the moment help was needed. The effects of this generous giving of his time, advice, and encouragement, helped create a generation of artists and civic leaders in Los Angeles who continue to shape the city and its culture. This is one of his greatest gifts to Los Angeles, that of his belief in its people, no matter their backgrounds, to make true and lasting contributions to our city. It is perhaps the greatest illustration of his profound and steady form of true leadership.” — Michael Maltzan, architect and close friend
“As a young attorney, Fred saw the value of art and artists. He gave us a long life of friendship and commitment to many great causes."
— Ed Ruscha, artist and longtime friend
“Fred never sought the spotlight. He was happiest lifting others up and helping them find their own path. He believed the practice of law was a privilege—not a right—which conveyed with it an obligation to give back to those in need who were not able to afford representation. Equal access to justice was more than an idea to him—it was an essential.” — Dom Snyder, Public Counsel’s first staff member and dear friend for over 50 years
“For more than five decades, Fred was not only our founder but one of our most steadfast champions. His deep belief in justice and his enduring support shaped Public Counsel into the organization it is today—one that stands with our clients to transform individual lives while pulling every lever we can to secure justice and lasting change for communities. We are honored to carry forward his legacy.” — Kathryn Eidmann, President & CEO, Public Counsel
“I feel incredibly privileged to have known Fred for more than four decades. He was a true pillar of Public Counsel and the City of Los Angeles—someone whose integrity, compassion, and steadfast commitment to justice made an indelible mark on everyone around him. It was our shared dedication to human and civil rights that brought us together, and his unwavering moral compass has always been an inspiration. Fred set a standard for community leadership, and the impact he made on our world is immeasurable. I'll miss him deeply.” — Mike Farrell, actor and activist
“I often think about Fred and the butterfly effect of his life. Directly, he changed so many people’s lives for the better. Indirectly—through Public Counsel and his many charitable efforts—his positive impact, especially in Southern California, exceeds that of most world leaders. Inspired by how Fred lived his life, I spent time working at the Legal Aid Society of San Diego. His example continues to guide and inspire me.” — Nancy Sandoval, Esq.
“RIP Fred Nicholas, the 105-year-old "Mr. Downtown Culture" of Los Angeles, died June 28. The real-estate mogul thankfully sorted out Sam Francis's estate and also served as a lifetime trustee of MOCA and played key roles in getting Geffen Contemporary and the Walt Disney Concert Hall built, even hiring Frank Gehry.” — Kelly Crow, Wall Street Journal
“Fred was a man I admired and I treasured his friendship. His life made a difference for the better in this city. He did so much good for so many causes and people.”
— Andrea Van de Kamp, Chair of the Operating Committee of the Los Angeles Music Center