Shorthand set stage for a long, interesting career
Former court reporter recorded the words of Evelyn Dick, served as special examiner
Mark Nimigan was one of the last — if not the last — Hamilton court official to have had the notorious Evelyn Dick cross his path.
Nimigan — who died April 20 at age 93 — worked as a court reporter and was on duty when the now pardoned killer testified not at her own trial, but at the trial of a person accused of assaulting a jail guard.
He took down her every word, never imagining he would ever have found himself sitting a few feet away from her. He skipped class one afternoon from Westdale high school to get a glimpse of her at her trial for murdering her husband John. His torso was found dumped on the side of the Hamilton Mountain in March 1946.
Despite her femme fatale reputation, Nimigan was not impressed with the dark-eyed brunette.
“I didn’t think she was good looking,” he told The Spectator in 1998, also saying she was “quite demure.” Dick was acquitted of her husband’s murder, but was found guilty in 1947 of manslaughter of her baby son Peter. She was pardoned in 1985.
A prominent and respected figure in the legal community, Nimigan spent more than five decades employing his shorthand at trials, and then as a special examiner for civil matters. He started as a court reporter on Oct. 17, 1948, after working for 18 months as a typist and secretary to the police chief and inspector of detectives.
In October 1961, he was appointed the special examiner for Wentworth County by the Chief Justice of Ontario Supreme Court. The position was later called official examiner.
He was an official of the court, but actually ran a private business taking down evidence at the examination of discovery for lawsuits. He would sell the transcript to the lawyers and the practice grew from three people helping turn out pages of evidence in the early 1960s to a dozen working for him by the late 1990s. His office was once in the courthouse but he moved to a James Street South building.
“Mark played a huge role in the court reporting profession in Ontario,” said friend Lisa Barrett on social media. “He was so charming and such fun to be around.”
Nimigan told The Spectator that shorthand came naturally to him and it seemed glamorous to him to go work for the police department.
When a court reporter’s job came open, he got it along with a pay raise — to $40 a week from $28. He could write up to 200 words per minute.
The Burlington resident served as president of the Charter Shorthand Association and was the first Canadian director of the American Shorthand Association. He also served as president of the Chartered Shorthand Reporters’ Association of Ontario.
After his official retirement in 2000, he was appointed by the province to the Hamilton Police Services Board in 2003. He served for six years, including as vice-chair.
In 2008, he raised eyebrows when he suggested police start arresting and charging people for swearing in the downtown core. He said he’d heard complaints from businesses and that “little old ladies” had to sit on park benches with their hands over their ears. A police inspector said people could be arrested for swearing, but it would have to be in connection with causing a disturbance or otherwise “we’d have to arrest everybody in the schoolyard.”
Nimigan was born Feb. 20, 1930, and grew up in the North End. He graduated from Westdale in 1947. Nimigan served on the board of the United Way and the Hamilton Community Foundation and made trips to Haiti to build schools.
Nimigan is survived by his daughters Nancy and Margaret, seven grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren and his sister Kay Kerr. He is also survived by his partner Victoria Dennis and her two children. He was predeceased by his wife Barbara in 2007 and son Mark in 2011.
A prominent and respected figure in the legal community, Nimigan spent more than five decades employing his shorthand at trials