A beloved Palmerton doctor leaves his practice this week, closing the doors of his personal medical office after decades on Delaware Avenue.

Originally from Tamaqua, Dr. John H. Nicholson made a home for his family in the borough and a name for himself among its residents through his work as a general practitioner. But his tenure as one of Palmerton’s most famed physicians will end today, when he retires.

“In a small town. You get to know everybody,” Nicholson said. “They’re your neighbors. They’re your patients, and they’re your friends.”

Nicholson said the decision to retire was a hard one, but at 78, trying to run an independent practice is no easy task.

“Between the government, the insurance companies, the networks, yeah, it’s hard to stay independent,” Nicholson said. “We’re dinosaurs.”

Still, over the last four decades, Nicholson estimates he saw more than 3,000 patients in Palmerton.

Before trying his hand as a doctor, Nicholson took on a handful of occupations. He served in the U.S. National Guard for about six years, was a student teacher in South Philadelphia and even sold medical supplies as a sales representative.

One undergraduate degree and a handful of career changes later, Nicholson took some inspiration from his brother — Dr. James Nicholson — and went into the medical field.

Two weeks into medical school, Nicholson’s wife, Joan, gave birth to their first daughter, Amy. After Amy came Betsy, then Christine. In the 90s, Nicholson and Joan adopted their fourth and youngest child, Jay.

Recalling that time in his life, Nicholson summed it up in one word: “hectic.”

Nicholson said what he’ll miss most about being a doctor is his patients. And according to the duo who, alongside Nicholson, have run the office for years, his absence will leave a gap no other physician can fill.

“He’s going to be missed,” Judy Fredericks, who has worked with Nicholson since he first went independent in the late 70s, said. “He’s just an icon in Palmerton.”

“It’s a heartbreaker,” Linda Wilk, who has worked with Nicholson for 30 years, said.

When Nicholson does retire, another physician, Dr. Joe Zhou, will set up shop in the grayish-brown, stone building Nicholson’s occupied since the 80s.

As far as the move is concerned, as all moves are, it has been laborious; Nicholson opened his office more than usual in the weeks leading to his leave.

But amid organizing medical record pickups, packing his equipment and taking his name off the door, there is one thing Nicholson won’t have to worry about: taking down any signs. He does have one, which was supposed to go outside the office to mark its location, but Nicholson said he never needed it.

Instead, that sign sat in his garage, while Nicholson’s roster of patients continued to grow.