Keynote
Speaker

Veterans Vigil Keynote Speaker

October 2009
Dr. James Nicholson is a native of Dallas, Texas.  He received his education at Crosier Technical High School.  His team won the 5A State Championship two years out of three and produced three All-American college basketball players.  He split his undergraduate studies at North Texas University.  After one year of college, he joined the Marine Corps and served in George Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines, as a Marine infantryman.  He carried a Browning automatic rifle through five major campaigns in the mountains of North Korea.  He saw intense close up combat throughout his stay in Korea and was finally wounded and evacuated.  He returned to North Texas University after serving in the Marine Corps, majoring in biology and chemistry.  He received his medical education at Southwestern Medical School in Dallas.  During the course of his medical education, he had two fellowships in physical medicine (physiatry) and interned in 1959 and 1960 at Baylor Medical Center in Dallas, Texas.  He moved his young family to Greenville, Texas, in 1960 to join the medical group that is now Primary Care Associates of Greenville.  This group has had the stability to be involved in continuous medical care of Hunt-Rockwall-Rains counties since 1922.

He was one of the three original people who initiated the campaign to form a Hunt County medical district, in order to be able to build a regional hospital.  This hospital has continued to grow and expand and now incorporates some of the finest medical care and modern cancer centers in this part of the state.  During the course of this hospital’s growth, Dr. Nicholson has been Chief of the medical staff on three different occasions.  He has also been Chairman of the Department of Family Practice on three different occasions.  He continues to practice within the hospital and still serves on several committees. He was Hunt-Rockwall-Rains County Medical Association Physician of the Year in 1992.  He has been a member of the American Academy of Family Practice since 1960 and has been a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Practice since October 2001. 

Community service includes being a lifetime member of the Greenville Independent School District PTA. He was a Greenville Independent School District board member for 12 years.  He served as a YMCA Director during the early years of the formation of the Hunt County YMCA.  He was involved in the formation of two separate financial institutions and served on the Board of Directors of these institutions for several years.

He is also a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Disabled American Veterans.

He has been married to Wanda Nicholson for 56 years.  He has four daughters who were all educated in the Hunt County school system and is the grandfather of eight grandchildren.