Leon Dupont Nichols, Jr.

Leon Dupont Nichols, Jr. was born November 14, 1949, in Newberry, South Carolina, to the late Leon Dupont Nichols, Sr. and Sarah Martin Nichols. So many children were born that month, after the cutoff for starting first grade (about 10 boys and one girl), that one of the parents, who had been an elementary school teacher, taught a private first grade for them so they wouldn’t have to wait a year to start school.

During high school, Leon drove his grandfather’s Model A Ford in parades, often with cheerleaders hanging off the sides. He still owns the car today. He loved piling friends into it for trips to the lake, where he taught them to water ski, and later fell in love with downhill skiing on trips to the North Carolina mountains. Even then, he had an early interest in tinkering with electronics.

In 1971, Leon graduated from Presbyterian College (PC) in Clinton, South Carolina, with a B.A. in Psychology, where he studied how to counsel people and troubleshoot their difficulties. During his years at PC, he – and his Model A Ford – were a familiar fixture on campus. Leon continued gathering groups of friends to tool around in his car, explore off-road (often getting stuck in the mud), and head out on adventures to Warrior Creek for tubing or Lake Murray for skiing. During college, he also discovered his passion for making pottery. Although PC had no pottery classes, Leon used his spare time to build his first kick wheel and a kiln on campus and taught himself to make pots. College friends recall that even his earliest pieces were remarkably well-formed.

After college, Leon made pots full-time alongside Pete Steinhauser and, in 1972, took a six-week clay concentration session at Penland School of Craft with Cynthia Bringle, which fanned the flame for pottery. Before long, he felt a need to create his own glazes, which led to learning glaze formulation and the subtleties of pyrochemistry… more troubleshooting! He later moved to Walnut Cove, North Carolina, where he lived in an artists’ community alongside neighbors such as Weaver Gypsey Hollingsworth, glassblower John Nygren, and world-renowned potter Tom Suomalainen.

Leon eventually moved to a farm near Hanging Rock State Park, North Carolina, where he founded his pottery studio in 1975. The owners, Jones and Gadys Vaden, converted a storage building into what became Leon’s studio, classroom space, and gallery. There, he built a log cabin for his pottery studio, designed and constructed a kiln, made lots of utilitarian pottery, and taught in-studio classes. He also displayed and sold his work at numerous craft shows, frequently demonstrating his techniques. Leon realized how much pleasure he derived from teaching others how to make clay move on the potter’s wheel. Soon, a challenge from a folk-potter-student led to Leon making larger and larger pottery. Leon became especially known for throwing “big pots”, three to four feet tall – crowd favorites that he built section by section, using a blowtorch to stiffen each layer before adding the next.

As his family grew, Leon decided he needed a more stable income. With guidance from Ron Evans, he rekindled his interest in electronics and began working in the avionics department at Piedmont Airlines. Following the birth of his third child in 1988, he transferred to the newly opened flight simulator department at Charlotte Douglas Airport. This role required extensive training in Montreal, where the simulators were built. After Piedmont was purchased by US Air, Leon and his family moved to Charlotte.

In Charlotte, Leon continued his passion for teaching pottery, offering classes at Carolina Clay Connection, the Jewish Community Center, Clayworks, and Sun City Community, regularly teaching about sixty adults to throw and hand-build pottery forms in six to eight-week classes. He taught “Making Big Pots” workshops at the John C Campbell Folk School every summer for fifteen years beginning in 1988. Other “Big Pot” workshops included the Jacksonville Center for the Arts in Floyd, VA; the Lanchine Center in Montreal, Canada; and private studios in Roanoke, VA, and Saluda, NC. He loved to share his knowledge of pottery – throwing techniques, glazing and glaze formulas, kiln firing, electric kiln operation, pottery wheel and kiln maintenance – anything that would help others succeed.

For more than 56 years, he taught hundreds of students who benefited from his knowledge, instruction, and care. Friends and colleagues describe Leon as an extraordinarily kind, gentle, patient, and generous person who deeply impacted everyone he met. He is remembered above all as a beloved teacher and mentor, especially in the pottery community. He freely shared his knowledge, encouraged students, and helped countless people find confidence, creativity, and joy in clay. Many say he was their first or most influential pottery teacher, someone whose lessons carried far beyond the studio into life itself.

Beyond his teaching, Leon is remembered as a gifted and respected artist, a skilled potter, kiln expert, glaze alchemist, innovator, and problem-solver who supported studios, schools, and individuals for over half a century.

Friends, former classmates, colleagues, and family recall him as a quiet, warm, humble soul with a great sense of humor, someone who made people feel seen, supported, and valued.

Leon lived a life of service, creativity, and kindness, left the world better than he found it, and will be deeply missed by his family, students, friends, and the entire pottery community. His legacy lives on in the people he taught, the art he created, and the countless lives he touched.

Leon leaves behind his three children: Hilary Nichols, James Nichols, and Talcott Nichols; his nieces Jessica Hall and Caroline Hall Boleyn; Nephew David Fisher; and a multitude of potters who will forever be grateful for his presence in their lives.

His children will remember his curiosity, open mind, and consistently positive outlook. Growing up, he made life fun and interesting. He designed and had a seesaw built with a fulcrum point that could be adjusted so that a child and an adult were perfectly balanced and could equally control the movement despite their weight difference. They still remember a pool party where they enjoyed being dunked with the seesaw. He taught them how to snow ski and took them to Hawaii. He tinkered with electronics and loved learning to use the DOS Prompt before computers were common and simple to use.

He also had great taste in music. He always had something great playing in the car, ranging from Astrud Gilberto to Catfish Keith. He loved visiting the Jazz Festival in Montreal and took his family with him.

Leon is preceded in death by his sisters: Moriat Dominick and Sarah Ann Fisher.

Thank you all for the love you shared with him. You all did so much to enrich his life. May he continue to guide the hands of his students through gentle breezes. Donations in his name may be made in lieu of flowers to the Stokes County Arts Council or the National Kidney Foundation.

A Celebration of Life will be held on Saturday, February 7th, from 2-4 pm at the pottery studio where he spent the most time teaching: Carolina Clay Connection. For the event, please bring any pictures of him to hang around the studio, write your stories of him on a piece of paper, and bring a potluck snack to share. When everyone arrives, we would like to invite everyone to share stories of their memories of him. Carpooling recommended.

Celebration of Life at 2-4 pm Saturday, February 7th, 2026:

Carolina Clay Connection

208 N Polk Street, Pineville, NC 28134

Private burial at:

Rosemont Cemetery

2400 College Street, Newberry, SC 29108

Donations:

Stokes County Arts Council

500 Main Street, Danbury, NC 27016

www.stokesarts.org

National Kidney Foundation

www.kidney.org