The Crowd:

There are people who write checks for causes. And there are people who take a hands-on approach and work assisting others in need. Last Thursday evening in the Newport Coast a unique blending of these two humanitarian ideals set a standard rarely witnessed in this community of envious excess.

Henry T. Nicholas III, billionaire co-founder and former president and chief executive of Southern California-based Broadcom, invited some 300 guests to his Pelican Hill estate for a graduation party.

Twenty-four young men and women, all students from the Santa Ana School District, all of whom also enrolled and participated in enrichment programs offered by the Nicholas Academic Center’s two Santa Ana campus locations, arrived with friends and family members to celebrate a significant milestone in their young lives. All 24 graduates have been accepted for college admission and all will receive scholarships enabling them to attend.

“This is real progress”, said Deborah Lowe Vandell, chairwoman and UC Irvine education professor. “There are many programs offering assistance to students, and most, unfortunately, often are not much help,” Vandell said, adding, “The Nicholas Academic Center is not just another program. It is exceptional and these students are benefiting and lives are being changed one by one.” Vandell shared a story about one student so inspired by the Nicholas program that she walks four miles to and from the center after regular school in order to participate.

“This is not urban legend, it is a true story about commitment. These young people see the opportunity before them and they are taking it seriously.” Vandell was joined by her husband, Kerry Vandell, director of The Center for Real Estate at UCI’s Merage School of Business.

The graduation gathering at the Nicholas home included many local educators and civic leaders from both the profit and nonprofit sectors. The Nicholas Academic Center has partnered with The Orange County Performing Arts Center, represented at the event by center boss Terry Dwyer along with Tom West, and Talena Mara. Santa Ana School Board members Rob Richardson and Audrey Yamagata-Noji were in attendance as was KOCE-TV’s President Mel Rogers and his wife, Marcia.

Addressing the crowd and congratulating the graduating students was UCI Vice Chancellor Manuel Gomez who shared the platform with retired Judge Jack Mandel who serves as executive director of The Nicholas Academic Centers.

Henry T. Nicholas III is a complicated man. He prefers using his formal name and Ph.D title of “doctor” in print. In person, he will tell people whom he has just met to call him “Nick.”

A brilliant innovator, his technology has altered how mankind communicates and conducts business. It has made him enormously wealthy, and at 49, Nicholas has the energy and the attitude of a young man. Standing at the microphone in the center of his tennis court that had been elegantly transformed into a ballroom for the graduation dinner party, Nicholas bounced on his 6-foot-7 frame like a varsity high school basketball star talking to his fans. He was just one of the kids in the crowd; excited, happy to be there, glad that his good fortune could create good fortune for them.

“Don’t let anything stand in your way, you can achieve your dreams. Work hard, stay focused. Like you, I am the product of a public education.” Nicholas continued, “You have an advantage over kids from privileged homes. You are stronger, you have overcome adversity,” he told the rapt audience sitting at Navy blue cloth-covered tables adorned with sprays of white florals and shaded by white market umbrellas.

Among Nicholas’ diverse interests music, in particular rock music, is a passion. He is both a producer and patron of young artists. He introduced a young man in the crowd named Rome Ramirez, lead singer of the band Sublime. The audience of hundreds of young Latinos cheered. Ramirez joined Nicholas at the microphone and told the students, “I never had the chance to get an education. You all do. Make the most of it and remember one thing — stay away from drugs!”

It was a moment of supreme irony. Nicholas has been the subject of alleged illicit drug use and distribution, and in fact faces federal criminal charges in a case that may see court action sometime in 2010. He has pleaded not guilty in the case. Additionally, he was indicted last year and pleaded not guilty to 21 federal criminal counts of conspiracy to commit securities and accounting fraud relating to Broadcom’s alleged improper dating of employee stock options. Presently, a trial is slated to begin in February 2010 on these charges. Recently, Nicholas was allowed to remove his electronic ankle monitor and granted permission to leave his Newport Coast mansion and travel within the United States.

Cynics might be tempted to label his involvement with disadvantaged Latino youths as simply a gesture of repentance, a display of civic responsibility in advance of a potential trial. It is important to dig deeper, to look beyond the surface. Some years ago Nicholas’ sister was slain. He formed and supported and went to work with a Victim’s Rights Foundation. There are many other examples of his personal code, his style.

His latest effort, the academic centers, funded with a $10 million pledge, comes from the same grass-roots belief that lives are changed, one by one, hands-on, with direct contact and a leg-up provided by those who can offer assistance.

On this night in the Newport Coast, surrounded by evidence of unparalleled business success, 24 kids from urban Santa Ana were given that leg up. This was not some impersonal black-tie, write-a-check fundraiser. This was direct contact, help from one complicated and brilliant man who made it, to kids with dreams of a better life.

THE CROWD runs Thursdays and Saturdays.