I met him @ the Mid Ohio round of AMA in '06, which happened to be during the summer break of the GP season. It must have been lunch break. Right afterwards, he was sitting in the Attack Kawasaki pit box talking with Roger Lee, Tommy, Jamie Hacking and IIRC, Ben Spies. At one point, one of the guys says: Hey Nicky, and nods towards the gate to the paddock. There's a woman standing there with her young (maybe 6 or 7 years old) son, you could tell he was hoping to get Nicky's autograph.
Well, Nicky didn't hesitate. He jumped up and quickly walked over to the two and started talking to them, signed the boy's program and posed for a picture. Then he takes the camera from mom, grabs a race team member who was walking past to take a picture of the three of them. When they were done, he gave the kid his hat before walking back to the pit box. You could tell the kid was over the moon excited.
That's the kind of guy he was. Godspeed, Nicky.