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“It is only an auctioneer who can equally and impartially admire all schools of art.”
~Oscar Wilde,
Irish Writer and Playwright,
The Critic as Artist, 1891
Although there is so much to the life led by Homer Nicholson, his business Nicholson Auction & Real Estate is one area of his life that has been handled by the partnership of him and his wife, Barbara. The two have been true partners in this endeavor since 1993, a decade before Nicholson retired from Geophysics with Conoco. Just recently, they and their business received the Ponca City Chamber’s Business Partner of the Year for 2024.
Chamber CEO/President Shelly Arrott says, “Decisions are based on the impact the business has made on the Chamber and the community.” The award is given annually after a process that involves numerous individuals in the selection. Brooke Jones, chair of the Business Council Committee, presented this year’s award, saying, “This dynamic duo has consistently supported local organizations, schools and charitable events. From sponsoring initiatives to volunteering resources and time, their contributions have left a lasting legacy of generosity and service.”
In looking at all he has done for the community over the years, incoming mayor, Kelsey Wagner expresses the vast nature of his influence and work: “Homer Nicholson is a once-in-a-generation wonder. Homer had a successful career in the U.S. Army and retired as a Command Sergeant Major E-9 in the Army. He then had another successful career working at Conoco for 38 years, then started another career as an auctioneer. Homer has such a heart for community service and was an exceptional mayor of Ponca City for 18 years, which is a huge feat.” The longest a previous mayor had served was six years. Six mayors from other cities, as well as city officials from other locations, came to Nicholson’s retirement celebration here in Ponca City.
All these different experiences led to his being a mayor who has had many accomplishments. He believes his success as mayor was in part due to the discipline of being in the military, organizational skills developing training curriculum for Conoco and all that it takes to begin a new business. Nicholson states he feels blessed to have had the careers he had. His life has been diverse and interesting. While the weirdest items he has auctioned have been a NASCAR with truck and trailer and a casket that the purchaser made into a car, when asked about what he’s most proud about as mayor, his answers are the RecPlex, Public Safety Center and the fact that Ponca City was the first to offer free broadband Wi-Fi. As a matter of fact, he’s had a visitor come all the way from Australia to Ponca City to explore the idea of the free Wi-Fi.
He has spent decades carrying the message of Ponca City to other mayors across the state. Ponca City has many firsts: we were the first to have auto-meter reading, the first to use yellow flashing signals for left turns and first in the state to require no train whistles at some cross sections to keep more peace in neighborhoods. He and Barbara also traveled to China as part of our Sister City relationship with Lan Zhou, and they later hosted two young women from that city when they traveled to Ponca City.
In addition to those accomplishments, Nicholson says he may be most satisfied with his bringing the various important aspects of Ponca City—such as City operations, the Chamber, Economic Development and major businesses—together to work as a team when so many communities find these entities to be at odds with one another. People have visited the city to see how all these work together so well. Building that relationship was one of the first things on his agenda when he became mayor in 2006. He stresses, “Ponca City sets the bar.”
It seems Nicholson is good at setting the bar. His auction business is a full-service company providing services for farms, ranches, commercial, residential, business property liquidations, bankruptcies, estates, heavy machinery, airplanes, boats, guns, coins, household and most anything you can imagine. When he talks about it, he says, “The auction business is big business across the U.S. Many multimillion-dollar auctions of golf courses, farms, ranches, condominiums, apartment buildings, business liquidations, bankruptcies and more are sold at auctions in big cities. This is because the final price at an auction is fair market value. One of my goals was to do my first million-dollar auction, and I did reach that goal at 1.4 million.”
The successes in Nicholson’s life have been many, and he has been honored with other awards along with this one from the Chamber. A few others are the 2012 Mayor of the Year award for cities over 5,000 from the Mayors Council of Oklahoma (which means he was awarded this over larger cities like Tulsa and Oklahoma City), recognition for Outstanding Service as President of The Oklahoma Municipal League for 2011-13 and the 2024 Jeff Shockley Award for Outstanding Contributions on Behalf of Municipal Government, presented by the Oklahoma Municipal League. Nicholson was also inducted into the Oklahoma State Auctioneers Association Hall of Fame in 2014 for years of dedicated service to the profession and the organization. He has a passion for all he does.
Now, after retiring from yet another brilliant career as mayor, after both the U.S. Army and Conoco retirements, there is no telling what Nicholson will do. Current mayor and former city commissioner Wagner sums it up like this, “Homer sets such a great example for us all, to live life to the absolute fullest. Homer has lived a true, ‘American Dream’ kind of life, and even though he has stepped down as mayor, I know he isn’t slowing down a bit. He’s just off on another grand new adventure.”
Retirement doesn’t seem to mean the same thing to Nicholson that it does to the rest of us. He is a true supporter of all things Ponca City, whether that be the workings of city operations, nonprofit organizations or just the people he meets. With all he has done, and with the partnership and continued assistance of Barbara at his side, we can all expect the presence of this business, their volunteering and Nicholson’s guidance to others to keep working for the continued betterment of Ponca City.
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