U
ntil September 1957, they were just two “kids,” two
moments has never been forgotten, and it immediately began to shape
17-year-olds from opposite sides of Columbus who
the Nicklaus family’s future.
freshmen year at Ohio State University when a friend
position to help others, we wanted to help children,” Jack and Barbara
Lab. Jack, the son of a successful pharmacist and the multi-sport star
reaching down and lifting people up. So early in our lives, we wanted
had never met. That changed the first week of their
introduced Barbara Bash to Jack Nicklaus on the steps of Mendenhall from Upper Arlington High School, was immediately smitten with
Barbara, the daughter of a high school math teacher and the girl from North High on the other side of Route 315. Jack wasted no time in asking for a date, and as he recalls, “Barbara eventually fit me into her schedule after a
couple of weeks.” It was the first chapter in a
“It was then that we pledged to each other that if we were ever in a
Nicklaus said. “It is said there is no exercise better for the heart than to extend that hand to lift up children.”
To the rest of the world, Nan’s father is golf icon Jack Nicklaus,
the Golden Bear and the greatest champion in the history of the game,
“The legacy you leave
love story that continues to write and re-write
here on earth is
Just under three years after that meeting
measured by the hearts
married on July 23, 1960—of course, picking
you touch.”
itself.
on the campus of Ohio State, the two were a Saturday that coincided with the PGA
Championship because Jack, a fast-rising
amateur golfer, was not eligible to play in that
– Barbara Nicklaus
and Barbara Nicklaus is the First Lady of Golf who has been decorated with some
of the game’s most prestigious awards. To Nan, however, Jack and Barbara are just
Dad and Mom—and they are her heroes. But Jack and Barbara aren’t heroes to
only Nan. Their gratitude for the lifesaving
care she received and the subsequent pledge sparked a lifelong passion and commitment to champion the well-being of children everywhere. It eventually led them to
major championship. Fourteen months later—to the day—Barbara
establish the Nicklaus Children’s Health Care Foundation in 2004.
II. It was a family that would eventually burgeon to five children and,
access cutting-edge pediatric healthcare.
and Jack Nicklaus started their family with the birth of Jack Nicklaus decades later, 24 grandchildren and 7 great-grandchildren.
Since then, they’ve helped children and families around the world
It seemed like the perfect storybook family from Middle America
until one day in 1966.
It was then that their only daughter Nan, just 11 months old at the
time, gave these young parents the biggest scare of their young lives. Jack and Barbara’s baby girl was at times struggling to breathe and
Ed Lepport Photography
was suffering repeated choking episodes. Baffled, they took Nan to Columbus Children’s Hospital—now Nationwide Children’s—and doctors, using an adult bronchoscope, discovered that Nan had
inhaled a blue crayon. The crayon eventually broke into pieces, fell into her lungs, and led to pneumonia. Mom and Dad endured anxi-
ety-filled days until doctors and nurses essentially saved Nan’s life.
This story had a happy ending, but the emotional impact of these
JACK AND BARBARA NICKLAUS CHILDREN’S LEGACY FUND Throughout their lifetime, Jack and Barbara have contrib-
uted to the health and well-being of countless children—both
nationally and internationally.
Unfortunately, many children around the world remain
in need of medical help that is not available or covered by insurance or government assistance.
In honor of Jack and Barbara’s 80th birthdays, the Nicklaus
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Children’s Health Care Foundation created the Jack and
Barbara Nicklaus Children’s Legacy Fund to ensure there will always be charitable funding available for children in need of life-changing and, in many cases, lifesaving medical care. This visionary, $80 million fund will eternally provide
children today, tomorrow, and beyond with a second chance at life.
