Nick worked at Conair Corp. before leaving to go on to MMC. I met him in August of 1998 when I was promoted into the MIS department. He worked closely with Glenn Stroin (who later became my husband). Nick was one of those guys who liked to joke around and liked to have fun. I remember someone in our department had gotten ahold of this little computer game called Box World. It may have been Nick who got it first, I'm not sure, but within about a week there were about 4 or 5 of us all playing this stupid little game on our pcs at work. It was one of those games where you have to beat one level to get to the next. Well Nick was out to destroy us all. He was on a level in the 50's and we were all still down around the 20's or 30's. Everyday when one of us would go into the computer room Nick would be there with a big grin on his face and you'd know the next line out of his mouth would be, "So what level are you on now?" And when we would tell him he would lean back in his chair with this content look on his face. It was enough to make you race back to your pc and try to conquer one more level to get closer to him. Well one day one of us realized there was a way to go into the programming of the game and change a couple of numbers so you could start on whatever level you wanted. So we set it all up. We were all standing around this one guys desk and set the game to start on level 60 something. Then we called Nick in the computer room and said "You won't believe it! We just got to level 60 whatever". I wish I could have been there near the computer room to see him bolt out of that chair because he was at Charlie's desk in about 8 seconds flat! He just stood there and stared at the screen and finally said, "How did you get that far?" And we were all like, "Well, level 58 was really hard but then the next few weren't too bad." He was dumbfounded. He turned and was back at his pc in the computer room in about another 8 seconds flat and sure enough, when I walked by he had his game going...LOL! I don't think he ever knew how we did that, but rest assured Nick was the true Box World King...LOL! We had a couple MIS get togethers, one being a pool party. That was the first time I ever met Nicholas Jr. Nick was a loving father.
When I think of him I remember that Box World Conspiracy and that pool party and seeing him play with Nicholas in the water.
Mine and Glenn's prayers go out to Nick's wife and kids and all the other countless families affected by the horrible tragedy. I'm sure wherever Nick is, he has a big smile on his face now because he knows we didn't really beat him at Box World...the secret is out.
