I was saddened to learn that Nick Chase died Saturday.

The fact that Nick was 103 years old was not the most remarkable thing about him. The father of Knoxville restauranteur Mike Chase, he lived his last years in Knoxville, and I was privileged to know him. I found this story I wrote about him to make his 100th birthday. I really admired Nick Chase.

At 99 and 11/12ths, Nick Chase can still swing a golf club.
He proved that last week when his family and friends threw him a golf-themed early birthday celebration at Calhouns on the River, the flagship establishment of the restaurant chain founded by his son Mike in 1973. Nick turns 100 on January 9th.
Nick Chase, who came to know nine presidents during a long career as one of the most prominent lawyers in Washington D.C., has lived in Knoxville since 1994 when Mike bought him and his wife Louise a house on Dean Hill Drive. They split their time between Knoxville and their summer home at Rehoboth Beach Delaware until Louise was diagnosed with dementia and suffered a string of illnesses in the winter of 2003 that left her needing full-time care. Nick and Louise moved into Elmcroft of Knoxville, where Louise was cared for in the Alzheimer’s unit and Nick had a suite upstairs.
Louise passed away the following year, and Nick has become well known for playing the piano for his fellow residents. He specializes in the classics, particularly Chopin and Mendelsohn. Incredibly, Mike Chase says his father doesn’t read music. One of Elmcroft’s advertisements features a photograph of Nick at the piano.
“He plays by ear,” Mike said. “My dad was born with an exceptional brain, but now his ability to take in new information has been compromised, so he does this other stuff to keep his mind busy, working and moving,” Mike Chase said.
Exceptional accomplishments are the standard for Nick Chase, who was born Nicholas J. Chiascione, son of Italian immigrants who settled in Connecticut. He was graduated from high school and awarded a college scholarship when he was 14 years old, but his mother believed he was too young, and made him wait until he was 16 to enroll in Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. in 1929. He was the editor of the school newspaper, president of his class and was named Phi Beta Kappa when he graduated at the top of his class before he was 19. He went on to earn a master’s degree in philosophy there before going to work at the Brookings Institute for a couple of years before deciding that he wanted to go to law school.
He finished first in his class at Georgetown University in 1934 and later spent almost 20 years as a professor there, teaching trial practice. He still found time for his own law practice, and in 1947 became the senior partner in Chase &Williams with junior partner Edward Bennett Williams, a flamboyant attorney who would much later represent Bill Clinton during his impeachment ordeal. Chase & Williams proved to be a short-lived partnership due to the sketchy nature of some of Williams’ associates; the last straw being his determination to represent deported mobster Lucky Luciano. Chase objected, and was quoted in multiple accounts as saying that he couldn’t go home and look his children in the eye if he represented “skunks” like Luciano. Among clients he did not cull was labor leader John L. Lewis.
In 1961, Attorney General Robert Kennedy offered him an appointment as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, a position that Chase, who says the Kennedy brothers “were all-right fellows,” turned down because he didn’t want to be a government lawyer. Dwight D. Eisenhower was his favorite of all the presidents he has known, and a scrapbook on display at his birthday party showed photographs of Chase with Ike at the ceremony awarding the former president an honorary doctorate from C.U. There are also photos of Chase with Bishop Fulton J. Sheen and J. Edgar Hoover from that period.
Despite a long and storied career teaching and practicing law, it is clear what means to most to Nick Chase, who is called “Pop-Pop” by his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He and Louise had five children, eight grandchildren (seven of whom are living) and nine great-grandchildren. Grandson Nicholas J. Chase II is a Knoxville attorney. Great-grandson Joey Gaston, a freshman football player at the Naval Academy, made a special effort to get to Knoxville on Sunday after suiting up for a bowl game in San Francisco Saturday night.
Dapper, as always, in a custom-made suit from John H. Daniels, Nick gave a brief speech that brought the crowd to tears when he thanked them for coming and told them always to remember that they are parts of “a wonderful family.”
“I’m a very lucky man. A very fortunate man. A very proud man. Thank you, ever so much.”