J. Patrick Nicholson, a former board chairman of the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority and a leader of civic causes who was president of the company his father founded and then started his own, died Sunday in Mercy Health St. Vincent Medical Center. He was 84.

He had coronavirus, although he had no symptoms, but had heart problems, diabetes, and was a dialysis patient, his son Jim Nicholson said.

Mr. Nicholson of Sylvania Township was a former president of Nicholson Concrete and a former chairman of what became N-Viro International Corp.

He served two stints on the port board, from 1973-85 and from 1998-2002. In boosting the 1984 renewal of the port authority’s operating levy, Mr. Nicholson told The Blade that the funds would allow the port authority to create an economic development division. In 1999, in a column for The Blade Pages of Opinion, Mr. Nicholson urged passage of a port authority levy, two thirds of which supported an economic development off-shoot, the Regional Growth Partnership.

“My father’s motto at Nicholson Concrete was ‘Boost Toledo by building Toledo. Build Toledo by boosting Toledo.’ The best way I know to ‘boost Toledo’ is to vote for renewal of the port authority levy,” Mr. Nicholson wrote.

The port board in 2000 unanimously approved Mr. Nicholson as its chairman. By then, the agency ran the region’s seaport, train station, and two airports — and helped fund the RGP.

“Leadership is critical. The community has leadership,” Mr. Nicholson told his port board peers. “The port has got to be the center of that leadership.”

He called for marshaling support to retool the area economy, particularly concerning technology, and taking advantage of the region’s key natural resource, Lake Erie, in order to compete in an increasingly tough global marketplace.

“We can win that battle if we make the fight. We’ve just got to go to work,” Mr. Nicholson said in 2000.

Former Mayor Carty Finkbeiner said: “Pat was well read and did his homework, so when he had a position, he would be quite an advocate for that position.

“You never had a question about what that position was, and it didn’t matter how controversial it was, but generally it was about growing Toledo. He and I wanted Toledo to be the best city it was capable of being,” Mr. Finkbeiner said. “I enjoyed him. He’s outgoing, and I’m outgoing. Wherever you went, he knew people in the room.”

Mr. Nicholson, formerly of central Toledo’s Westmoreland neighborhood, was a longtime supporter of Mr. Finkbeiner’s and supported Democratic candidates at all levels. He also was chairman of several levy campaigns for Toledo Public Schools.

In 2002, he received Touchstone Lifetime Achiever Award from the Press Club of Toledo, for his civic and business contributions.

“When he was picked to work on something, he took a good interest in it and always worked hard,” said Urban Gradel, retired president of Gradel Inc., a paving contractor. “He was for Toledo.”

John Patrick Nicholson was born July 21, 1936, in Toledo, the first son of Kathleen and James Nicholson. He was a 1954 graduate of Central Catholic High School and a 1958 graduate of Villanova University. Afterward, he was commissioned a Naval officer and served in the Navy and Navy Reserve.

In 1968, he succeeded his father as president of Nicholson Concrete. His father, the University of Toledo’s first full-time head football coach, founded the company after getting a law degree.

“He absolutely revered his father. Jim Nicholson was a legend in Toledo,” the younger Mr. Nicholson’s son Bob said.

The younger Mr. Nicholson left the firm in 1979 to form N-Viro and developed processes to create, for instance, bio-organic fertilizer by combining cement kiln dust and wastewater sludge.

Topping his priority list, Mr. Finkbeiner said, was family: “They stood up for each other and fought for each other. He was about family to the end.”

Mr. Nicholson’s son Bob said his father’s business often involved cross-country travel.

“He would make sure he was back for my Friday night football games or my hockey games,” son Bob said.

Mr. Nicholson was a cofounder and a longtime chairman of Toledo’s Civic Hall of Fame.

Surviving are his wife, the former Sheila Mary Thompson, whom he married June 30, 1962; sons Jim, Mike, Bob, and Timothy; brother, Mike, and 10 grandchildren.

A funeral Mass is to begin at 11 a.m. Friday at Gesu Church. Arrangements are by Coyle Funeral Home.

The family suggests tributes to Central Catholic High School or St. Francis de Sales High School.

First Published January 20, 2021, 5:00 a.m.