Greg Nisbett, a well-known fixture in Lindsay’s downtown retail environment as owner of Nisbett’s Clothiers, has died this week at 62 from cancer.

Nisbett’s daughter, Amy Nisbett, worked together with her father at the family business. She says she will miss her dad for “always being here for me, no matter what, and he never sugar coated anything.”

That advice and daily guidance is something that can’t be replaced, Amy says. He had “a love and commitment for his community and the people in it.”

She says her dad “worked at the store until he couldn’t. His passion was to help people.”

Nisbett was known as a formidable athlete in his day.

In a former interview with the Advocate he told columnist Jamie Morris about a training ride he once endured in Kawartha Lakes.

He was well into a 150-kilometre ride on his carbon-fibre bicycle when he was caught in a flash storm. High winds buffeted him, and he was soaked by freezing rain. Drenched and shivering he reached the turn toward home. Then, after cresting a hill by Omemee, he faced steady headwinds for the final 20 km. He never gave in.

Memories of that victory over adversity — along with restorative chicken broth at an aid station — sustained him later, during his first Ironman triathlon, at Lake Placid in 2006. He’d completed the four-km swim and the 180-km bike ride when, early in the final leg — a marathon-length run — he became dizzy and had to slow to a walk. In another race, he wiped out on his bike, sustaining road rash and a broken rib.

In all, Nisbett completed nine Ironman events as well as the Escape from Alcatraz in San Francisco. Only once did he not finish.

Amy says if people didn’t know her dad from the men’s clothing store, they knew him from the Kids of Steel triathlons in Lindsay over many years, where he served as volunteer race director.

Luis and Leanna Segura, owners of Fresh Fuell and North Ward Coffee Co., were dismayed to learn of Nisbett’s death.

“He was a regular here for sure. I’m still in shock,” says Luis. “I sensed something was wrong. He just didn’t seem himself the past couple of months.”

Luis said he’s “just one of those guys who gets up and goes to work, always grinding…you knew he just loved his work.”

Leanna agrees. “We talked a lot about business. I looked forward to seeing him every day,” noting that he always ordered a small half sweet, almond milk mocha.

“He loved sharing wisdom from his time in business,” she says.

Leanna says she wishes he had gotten to enjoy his retirement, since he worked so hard. “But then again I think he wouldn’t have known what to do with his time if he wasn’t working. He was just that kind of guy.”

Melissa McFarland, executive director of Lindsay’s downtown BIA, called Nisbett a “staple of our downtown community,” and noted his business is one of the longest in operation in the downtown.

“He was a friendly face who could be found standing outside his beautiful store on nice days, keeping an eye on the pulse of downtown, and always happy to chat with anyone passing by,” McFarland tells the Advocate.

“He was a loyal supporter of other local businesses in the community, and he will be missed by so many,” McFarland adds, noting the downtown Lindsay family of businesses offers heartfelt condolences to the Nisbett family.

For daughter Amy, when asked if there was something that people didn’t realize about her dad, she says “he really just wanted to try and help make this world a better place.”

That included “his home, in the workplace or in our community. He really cared for his customers. He called them his friends.”

--with files from Jamie Morris