Nicholson was born Heather Margaret Halcrow in
Hamilton on 19 June 1931, the daughter of Amy and Tom Halcrow, and was raised at
Galatea. After studying physical geography at high school, she enrolled at
Auckland University College in 1949, where she decided to study geology. She was the first woman whose thesis, titled
Geology of Waiheke Island and supervised by Arthur Lillie, was primarily based on fieldwork and the first woman in New Zealand to conduct a major geological mapping project. She graduated
MSc with second-class honours in 1954. The following year, she married Ian Nicholson, and the couple went on to have twin daughters. Nicholson died in
Orewa on 9 July 2019. ==References==