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The word came on June 13 in a brief online message from a fellow career journalist, former coworker and longtime newspaper editor.

“Nick Nicholl is gone. Probably you already knew.”

Those words struck like a tidal wave. The longer we live, the more we hear of others passing away. Sometimes it’s just a sad moment. Occasionally, it knocks us over. Nearly two months later, this one is lingering.

There was no public announcement, no published obituary. That wouldn’t have been his way. But the news still is worth sharing, and this seems like a good place.

In print, he was Larimore Nicholl. If you’ve read the Indy for more than a few years, you should recognize that name — and for good reason.

For most of this newspaper’s 29 years of existence, one of our strengths was near the front of each edition. Our letters from readers were plentiful, they were often moving, and they covered the full spectrum of our everyday lives. For many of those familiar contributors, they became like miniature guest columns, condensing powerful messages into 20 to 200 words.

Larimore “Nick” Nicholl was the best at that. He could mix intense outrage with sharp humor, at times self-effacing but also condescending if needed. Upon my arrival here as executive editor at the end of 2006, his offerings for the Letters file instantly stood out. He had his own following.

It was so apparent how valuable the Letters were to the Indy, often spreading across several pages. Often they became ongoing conversations, with readers responding to each other and arguing their points.

Soon we came up with a different idea for a cover story — profiling a handful of those letter-writers. That’s how I first met Nick Nicholl, who was even more fascinating in person than in his many letters. He had graduated from Colorado College around 1960, later serving many years as a philosophy professor at the school that became the University of Southern Colorado and, today, Colorado State University - Pueblo.

That’s what made him the master of writing newspaper letters. He was a true philosopher. He wound up back in Colorado Springs, living a quiet and content existence with his wife, Chris, a Pikes Peak Library District historian and author/editor herself, writing or sharing in works such as “Extraordinary Women of the Rocky Mountain West.”

There was something else about Nick. He was an avowed atheist, which came out occasionally in his letters or occasional guest columns. One of my favorites was his December 2011 letter, entitled “Tebow to an atheist.” Here it is:

What does an atheist like me think of Tim Tebowing? About as much as a student silently praying for a good grade during a test.

I really like Tim Tebow. He's unconventional, a dazzling athlete with "miraculous" moves giving us exciting football. What's not to like?

Pro football is part sport, part show business and all meat-grinder, and athletes in most extreme sports go into it knowing they almost certainly will be permanently damaged physically and "old" by 35. You admire their bravery but question their career choice.

Many athletes and performers pray beforehand as a good-luck ritual. No one logically believes any god can answer the competing prayers and make both win every time. And some philosophers have remarked that if a god answered your prayers without fail, you would be more powerful than god himself, ordering him around!

For all I know, Tebow, when scoring and looking down at the grass on one knee, might be tying his shoes. When he points up at the sky, maybe he is like so many others signaling "We're No. 1!" Much like my own experience driving around town, with other drivers honking and signaling me with their fingers that I'm No. 1.

If you don't want to see silicone-packed cheerleaders, don't watch. If you resent seeing anyone praying, stay away. If you dislike witnessing young men getting busted up and carried off the field, don't buy a ticket.

Atheists, as well as the ACLU and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation's Mikey Weinstein, get it right by drawing the line at government. Our government must never promote any religion over and above any other one. Do anything you want in your private property or business, such as pro football. But keep your religion out of my government, please.

See what I mean? That letter was vintage Larimore Nicholl. He was not just prolific, he was provocative — and incredibly smart, of course. Politically, he was always on target. Such as this one from 2017:

Former infamous President Nixon: "I am not a crook."

President Donald Trump: "If it turns out I am a crook, can I pardon myself?"

Attorney General Sessions: "I don't recall if I am a crook. I just don't remember."

Former campaign director Paul Manafort: "Nyet."

Ivanka Trump: "Who cares? Have you seen my new clothing line?"

Trump Team member Kellyanne Conway: "What is Truth? You have your facts, I have mine."

Sarah Huckabee Sanders: "Trump signs my paychecks. Need I say more?"

Donald Trump Jr.: "Huh?"

Yet, he also could provide different takes on current events, always inserting snippets of edgy commentary, such as this one that could have come at any time in the past 20-plus years:

We must put a stop to all these mass shooting rampages around America, and do it now. We need really effective action, at last.

We are told that guns and bullets don't kill people. People kill other people. It's mental illness that's to blame.

If this is true, then the answer is clear. Forget about guns. Stop the madness. We've got to get tough and take action.

Right now, and most important, we've got to quadruple the number of times we pray for an instant cure for all mental illness. Then triple the number of candles we light in remembrance. Then double the number of flowers we leave at the scenes of these mass murders.
That'll do it.

Timeless. Just like this one from 2009, titled “Battling depression”:

Always willing to help with pragmatic and practical advice, I have suggestions to help in times of recession (the current euphemism for depression).

• After planting your backyard vegetable garden and visiting Goodwill and Salvation Army, ordinary non-military citizens can blame their next-door friends for voting against the most recent tax increases.

• Write your state legislator and tell him or her to repeal TABOR forthwith.

• Castigate your neighbor across the alley for supporting Bush's wars and tax cuts for the rich, when you and 40 million good folks can't afford health insurance, and millions live in poverty.

• Walk to the nearest Dusty Mud Park and smell the urine wafting from locked restroom doors. Do not try the water fountains, but ask anyone you see if they hate taxes and voted against all tax increases.

• Write your City Councilor and ask if he or she is proud to have won office on a promise of smaller government and spending cuts.

• Look up that quip used by Ronald Reagan, Douglas Bruce and many Republican politicians in the last election, "Government is not the solution, it's the problem," and then ask yourself why you are complaining to government about vanishing city services. Have a good chuckle with the late Reagan.

• Fix your own potholes. Become your own cop by buying more guns, knives, locks and nunchucks. Get more hoses in case your place catches on fire.

• Finally, enjoy the editorial pages of the Gazette. (Get one free in any dumpster.)

At least there's more than enough money for nuclear subs, aircraft carriers, plush military officers clubs, Gitmo and the like.

You read those again, and you see how perfectly matched Nick Nicholl was with the Indy.

One of the last times we saw him was in early 2017, at a small group dinner with common friends at The Warehouse Restaurant. We had connected after the 2016 election, comparing our reactions. Some of them were long-ago students who never lost contact. But all of us were admirers.

We continued to exchange emails for a couple of years after that, then lost contact. Part of me feels remorseful for not staying in touch and having to learn of his passing at the age of 86 after the fact. But there’s a remedy for that, and for those grizzled Indy readers, it’ll work for you as well. Just go to csindy.com, look for the search magnifier on the top right, type in “Larimore Nicholl,” and you’ll get an instant treasure trove, more than 150 of Nick’s letters.

One excerpt from one of his final offerings, in January 2018, seems like an appropriate way to end this:

Why would Norway's people want to immigrate here? Norway has the highest quality of life in the world, according to objectively verifiable statistics from the World Health Organization. This is not opinion, but observable fact. … Someone will say, "Why doesn't Nicholl emigrate to Norway?" It's tempting. Either go to a better nation or stay and try to improve the nation you live in. So far, I choose the latter.

RIP, Larimore “Nick” Nicholl. You made the Indy, and many of us, so much better.