Robert Nicholls was born in Montréal on February 18th, 1913. He was educated at McGill University, obtaining his B.A. in 1933, M.Sc. in 1935, and Ph.D. in chemistry in 1936. He also undertook post-doctoral work at Cornell University, the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, and Cambridge University in his area of specialization, high polymers. He was appointed Lecturer in chemistry at McGill in 1937 and Assistant Professor in 1940. During the Second World War, Nicholls was part of a group of researchers at McGill charged with developing explosives, notably RDX. From 1946 until his retirement, Nicholls was Associate Professor of chemistry, as well as serving as Associate Dean and Secretary of the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research. Nicholls is also an authority on the history of science; he collected and catalogued the Chemistry Department's library of historic works on chemistry. For his work in establishing the Canadian Railroad Museum, he was awarded the Order of Canada in 1984 and received an Award of Merit from the Canadian Railroad Historical Association in 1990. Nicholls married Mable E. Miner in 1945 and had two daughters. He passed away in 2007.

A native of Montréal, John Nicholls received from McGill University his B.A. in 1930, M.D.,C.M. in 1934, and M.Sc. in 1935. He entered private practice in Montréal as an ophthalmologist in 1938. Nicholls also taught at McGill University as Assistant Professor of ophthalmology from 1950 to 1956 and as Associate Professor of ophthalmology from 1957 until his retirement in 1970.

A native of Shotley Bridge, England, Albert G. Nicholls came to Montréal as a boy. After obtaining his B.A. (1890), M.A. (1893) and M.D. (1894) from McGill, he undertook post-graduate study in Germany and Austria. He received his D.Sc. in 1909, and worked as a pathologist at the Royal Victoria and Montreal General Hospitals. He was Assistant Professor of pathology at McGill from 1904 to 1916, and Assistant Professor of bacteriology from 1908 until 1911. In 1914, he went to Dalhousie University as Professor of pathology and bacteriology, and was appointed Pathologist for Nova Scotia. He returned to Montréal in 1925 and in 1929 became editor of the Canadian Medical Association's Journal. He retired in 1943.

Robert Nichols was educated at Trinity College, Oxford. Following his military service in World War I, he went to the United States as the representative of the Ministry of Information in the British diplomatic mission. From 1921 to 1924 he held Lafcadio Hearne's chair of English literature at Tokyo Imperial University. Nichols published poetry, including Invocation, 1915; Ardours and Endurances; Fisbo, 1934; and Such was my Singing, 1942, drama Guilty Sould, 1922; Wings over Europe, 1929 and a novella, Under the Yew, 1929.

Eleanor (Ellie) Nichol, née Hiebert, is a Canadian poet, writer, and printer. In 1968, she met a Canadian poet, writer, sound poet, editor, and creative writing teacher, Barrie Philip Nichol, known as bpNichol (1944-1988), at Therafields, a therapeutic organization, and they married in 1980. Together they wrote books of poetry, "A Bouquet as Thanks" (198?) and "One Thread: Two H's" (1987). They also published "Le Chien Bleu" (1985) and “Clouds and Water; An Exhibition of Works on Fabric and Paper” (1981). In 2012, she published the book "Refuting a.k.a. bpNichol."

Barrie Phillip Nichol, "bpNichol," was born on September 30, 1944, in Vancouver, British Columbia.

He was a Canadian poet, writer, sound poet, editor, and Professor of Creative Writing at York University in Toronto. He first received international recognition in the 1960s for concrete poetry. The first major publications included “Journeying & the returns (1967), a purple box containing visual & lyrical poems and “Konfessions of an Elizabethan Fan Dancer” (1969), a book of concrete poetry. He won the 1970 Governor General's Award for poetry with not one but four publications: the prose booklet, “The True Eventual Story of Billy the Kid,” a collection of lyrical poems, “Beach Head,” a box of concrete poetry cards, "Still Water," and “The Cosmic Chef,” a boxed anthology of Canadian concrete poems Nichol edited. He performed sound poetry in solo concerts, with various other performers, and as part of the group The Four Horsemen. In the early 1980s, Nichol programmed on a primitive Apple IIe "First Screening" (1993), a set of computer concrete poems. During the 1970s and 80s, he was a contributing editor of a literary magazine, Open Letter. In the 1980s, he also wrote for several children's television shows, e.g., Fraggle Rock, The Raccoons, Under the Umbrella Tree, Care Bears, and Babar. His best-known work, “The Martyrology” (1972-1992), is an open-ended, lifelong poem that investigates language. The bpNichol Chapbook Award, a prize for excellence in Canadian Poetry in English, was established in 1986 by Phoenix Community Works Foundation.

In 1980, he married Eleanor Hiebert. He died on September 25, 1988, in Toronto, Ontario.