“I learned so much from Nate in my early years as Executive Director of Preble Street. His influence on this agency – and me personally and professionally – cannot be overstated. Preble Street would not be what it is today without Nate Nickerson. The world lost one of the good guys last week.” Swannie (Mark Swann, Executive Director, Preble Street)
The world lost a great human last week: Nate Nickerson. For more than 15 years, Nate served as the first Executive Director of Konbit Sante, which shared that his greatest legacy “will live on in the thousands of lives he touched through decades of dedicated service to the people of northern Haiti.”
But for those of us here at Preble Street, we will always remember him as a hippie with a backpack in the chapel basement back in the 90s; the developer of so many of the City of Portland’s Health Services for its most vulnerable residents; one of the creators of Portland’s Annual Homeless Vigil and a member of the Vigilantes music group; and a winner of the Joe Kreisler Community Impact award in 1998 (the photo above is Nate receiving the award from Preble Street founder Joe Kreisler).
Nate was creative, entrepreneurial, and a true hero to this community for both his spirit and relentless pursuit of healthcare for vulnerable people. We will miss him fiercely and send our deepest condolences to his wife Nan and their family.
So much of the City of Portland’s Health Services for people experiencing homelessness can be traced back to Nate’s work with the Portland’s Health Care for Homeless Program in the 1990s. When Preble Street first opened the Preble Street Resource Center in 1993, we made sure there was clinic for Nate and the City right in that building. So many great things were able to happen, like access to dental care, because Nate was true partner and cared deeply for the people he served.
Nate also played a key role in creating the Annual Portland Homeless Vigil, which has continued for nearly 30 years. Each year, he would come back to the Vigil as part of the band the Vigilantes to lead the crowd in song and remembrance. Nate was one of the writers of the lyrics to Streets of Portland, which is sung every year at Vigil.
Streets of Portland Adapted from “Streets of London” by Ralph McTell (1970)
Have you seen the couple at the
farmer’s market
Searching for bottles, wearing worn out shoes
In their eyes you see their pride with their children at their side
Yesterday’s heartache never makes
today’s news
CHORUS – Repeats after each verse:
So how can you tell me that you’re lonely?
And say for you that the sun don’t shine
Let me take you by the hand and lead you through the streets of Portland
I’ll show you something to make you change your mind
Have you seen the woman who walks the streets of Portland
Unsteady gait, her layered clothes in rags?
She’s no time for talking, she just keeps right on walking
Hauling her home in 2 carrier bags
CHORUS
In the dark at Tommy’s Park at a quarter past eleven
One young girl sitting there all alone
Looking for affection where she can find it
Walking off with strangers, no family of her own
CHORUS
Have you seen our friend Tom who lived on the streets of Portland
Tattooed arms and open heart, gave all he owned away
In our winter city, the rain cries little pity
For those who fight with demons in their struggle day to day