ROCKFORD Dan Nicholas is being remembered by family and friends for his passion for flowers and exotic plants and for his vision of beautifying the community where he was born and raised.
He was a devoted husband and father, a U.S. Army veteran, a successful financial services executive and a political advisor.
Nicholas, who along with brothers Ab and Bill, donated funds to build the Nicholas Conservatory, died Monday at age 93.
“They grew up as boys walking across the river on the ice and skating on the old lagoon,” Nicholas’ oldest child, Scott, said of his father and uncles. “They thought the conservatory would be a great memorial to our grandparents, William and Ruby. It was an extension of what mom and dad loved with their gardening.”
A 6½-foot-tall freezer delivered by the state to Springfield’s HSHS St. John’s Hospital in recent days will make history in the fight against COVID-19.
The “ultra-deep freeze” unit, now plugged in along a wall of the internal pharmacy at the 422-bed nonprofit hospital, will be used to store the first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine proven 95% effective in a pandemic that has sickened millions and killed more than 290,000 Americans and almost 14,000 in Illinois.
St. John’s is one of 10 regional hospitals that will coordinate distribution of the initial vaccine shipments to local health departments, contractors, and others administering shots to frontline health care workers and nursing home residents as soon as the week of Dec. 13. The Peoria region is being coordinated by OSF HealthCare, who declined the Journal Star s request for access to the site due to security concerns.
Staff Report
Health care workers were among people receiving the first dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine across the country Monday.
Illinois received approximately 43,000 vaccine doses in a first shipment and expects additional shipments in the coming weeks, according to a press release from the governor s office. The vast majority of doses in the shipment will be delivered to the 10 regional hubs around the state that will serve as pick up locations for local health departments to begin distribution.
“Today marks a momentous occasion – not just this year, but in American history. Eleven months after scientists the world over first got their hands on the genetic sequence of this virus – and we are seeing the beginning of the end of this pandemic,” said Gov. JB Pritzker. “I want to offer my gratitude not only to the researchers who fueled this moment, but also to all the truck drivers, pilots, logistics specialists, warehouse operations managers, and
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