Please take a moment with me to remember a former, fellow Rotarian and friend Nick Dovolis who died suddenly this past July. Nick was one of our youngest Rotarians. His approach to everything he did was with an immense amount of ENERGY and ENTHUSIASM. And boy was it contagious!
Nick had a great interest and curiosity in entrepreneurship. An entrepreneurship major and graduate of the University of St. Thomas entrepreneurship program, Nick went on to run many different businesses after college including bail bonds, investigative, and painting businesses. It didn’t stop there, in one of the last conversations I had with Nick, he was excitedly sharing with me three new business concepts that he was preparing to launch.
Nick was also an avid golfer. When he stepped onto the golf course, as he did early every Saturday morning at Braemar Golf Course in Edina, he acted and played as if he was the club pro. Nick was a scratch golfer, and in talking with some of his Braemar Saturday morning golf league buddies, he was playing his best golf in the weeks before his death, shooting a 75 in one memorable outing.
In Rotary, Nick’s pure enthusiasm and energy for fellowship was beaming from him each and every time he attended a Rotary lunch. The last time I saw Nick at a Friday Rotary lunch was the best example of this. As I walked into the elevator lobby of the IDS, I heard that enthusiastic voice yelling, “Hey T.C., how are ya?” It was Nick getting on the elevator and shaking the hand of a prominent twin cities commercial mortgage banker who was getting off the elevator. Nick called him by a nickname as if the two were old buddies. This memory of Nick as he headed up to Rotary illustrates his enthusiasm for spreading fellowship.
Let all of us Rotarians, take a moment to remember Nick, and share Rotary with enthusiasm, just like our friend and fellow Rotarian, Nicholas Dovolis.
