Ernest Nichols; Lemon Rancher, Hospital Trustee

Ernest “Ernie” Nichols, a longtime Saticoy lemon rancher and member of Community Memorial Hospital’s board of trustees, died at the hospital Tuesday following a heart attack. He was 91.

Nichols had undergone a heart bypass operation 20 years ago and checked into the hospital about a week ago with complaints of pain, his friends said.

Nichols joined the hospital’s board in the early 1960s when the Ventura facility was named Foster Memorial Hospital. He was a past president and served as a trustee for more than 35 years.

“He was an absolutely amazing man,” said board President Phil Drescher, an attorney who knew Nichols for more than two decades. “He was a great advocate for health care in this community.”

Nichols, owner of the former 50-acre Nichols Ranch that sat north of California 126 at Kimball Road, was one of the last old-line ranchers in the county to give in to development that consumed property encircling his ranch.

In a July 1994 interview with The Times, Nichols summed up his thoughts about losing the open land: “I love those orchards. I’d love to keep farming them. But the truth is, it’s just not farmland anymore. It’s where people live.”

Nichols is a former member of a state water commission and was a farm industry leader when ground-water districts were formed in the Oxnard Plain, his friends said.

He was president of the Saticoy Water Co. at the time it was taken over by the city of Ventura under the threat of condemnation in the 1970s.

“He was a man of total integrity. He was thoughtful, bright and he . . . understood problems when they involved government,” hospital trustee Donald Benton said.

Benton said his old friend had a good sense of humor and enjoyed duck hunting.

Nichols is survived by his wife, Ida; two sons and three grandchildren.

Services are pending.