>Shortly after his mother Stephanie passed away, the mysterious archaeologist Quinton R. McCord arrived in Springfield in 1981. A quiet and enigmatic man, he lived in a mansion on Thornway Road next to the Wexler estate with his household staff which included his housekeeper/confidant, Violet Renfield and his butler/chauffeur Fritz. Early on he was pegged as the red herring for anything afoul, whether it was Diane Ballard's murder or Alan Spaulding's kidnapping, Mr. McCord was the obvious first suspect.

On the property of his estate in a white gazebo, he met his future wife, Nola Reardon in October 1981. He was immediately charmed and attracted to the pregnant, unwed, young woman who applied for the position of household supervisor. She had absolutely no experience for this type of work, but he hired her anyway. Shortly thereafter, the pregnant, impressionable young woman moved into his home. Quinton was obsessed with determining the identity of the man who fathered Nola's unborn child. At first his intentions seemed creepy and suspect, but as time passed it became clear that he simply wanted the father to take responsibility. It would also become clear down the road, that Quint had personal reasons for feeling so protective over young Nola.

Quint fancied showering the under privileged Nola with expensive gifts and exciting trips. Nola had never even been on an airplane, when Mr. McCord took her to San Francisco just before Christmas of 1981. Quint was always charmed by Nola's innocent excitement about all the new places they visited. However, the San Francisco trip was in large part set up so that Quint could dodge Blanche Bouvier who was an old society friend of Vanessa Chamberlain's and some one that Quint also knew. The true meaning behind his worries over Blanche was never completely revealed when several writer and producer changes occurred behind the scenes.

In January 1982, Nola prematurely gave birth to her baby daughter that she named Kelly Louise Reardon. Upon naming the child Kelly, Quint was more certain that ever that Dr. Kelly Nelson was the deadbeat dad. As a romantic gesture, knowing that Nola loved the story of "Wuthering Heights", Quinton gave the new mother a bundle of heather while she was recuperating in the hospital. The significance of this gift was not lost on Nola. Giving Nola heather was a romantic gesture he repeated throughout their courtship. He fell in love with the young infant instantly. Soon Nola and then shortly thereafter, Kelly Louise returned back to Thornway Road to live.

As Nola shifted her interest from the "lost hope" named Kelly to the much better and charismatic prospect of Quinton, the romantic tension between them started to build. Quinton gave Nola a flashy chinchilla coat. However, Quint did not realize that he accidentally had left the monogram of an ex-love in the coat, tweaking all kinds of curiosity in Nola. Next he invited her to go out to London with him on a business/pleasure trip to meet with his colleague, Professor Taylor. Nola's childlike excitement about going to London, as usual, endeared Quint. Nola looked forward to finding out the identity of "HM," the monogram in her fur coat. While on that trip, Nola found out that "HM" was Quint's ex-fiancée, Helena Manzini. Helena had jilted Quint the night before they were to marry to run off with evil Silas Crocker. Quint had a moment of confusion when Helena kissed him one night when they were arguing at the King's Ransom Pub. Nola witnessed the kiss between her employer/love interest and was hurt. Other unpleasantries occurred between Nola and the foul mouthed Helena and also between Quint and Helena, before they went back to Springfield. Helena accused Quinton of being the father of Nola's "love child."

It was around that time that Silas Crocker's name started popping up all over the place. Quint and Silas had attended Oxford together and had a long history of rivalry, not the least of which was over the exotic beauty, Helena. While Quint was an honest and good archaeologist desiring only to uncover the earth's treasures for the good of all mankind, Silas was nothing more than a pirate who wanted to exploit the archaeological finds for his own personal gain. Putting her own life in danger, Nola got entangled in this rivalry, and tried to assist Quint in getting back important maps that Silas stole, after he presumably killed one of Quint's venerable colleagues, Professor Taylor.

In the Spring of 1982, Nola finally made arrangements to christen her baby daughter, Kelly Louise. So that Floyd would not feel uncomfortable at the ceremony, Nola nervously admitted to Mr. McCord that Floyd was in fact the biological father. Quint was surprised it was not Kelly Nelson, but also relieved to know the truth, since Floyd wanted to play a part in the child's upbringing. The Christening, however, did not go nearly as well as Nola's confession. Believing that Nola spilled the beans to Derek Colby about his burgeoning relationship with Hillary Bauer (it was really a jilted Vanessa who spilled the beans), hotheaded Tony blew the whistle on Nola about her prior summer shenanigans right in front of Floyd and Quint, all dressed and ready for the Christening. Up to that moment, dense Floyd thought that he and Nola were "in love" when the child was conceived and had no idea that Nola had actually used him as a sperm donor to trap Kelly into marriage. Floyd vowed to get custody of the child away from Nola, feeling that she was now an unfit mother. Quint was also quite shocked by the revelation, but quickly softened when he realized Nola had skipped town with the baby. When Quint discovered that his Nola had gone to London, he followed her there on the Concord, promised to help her financially and emotionally in the battle against Floyd, and brought her back home to Springfield.

They were barely back in town before it was time for Quint and Nola to head off to St. Croix on his quest to find the Temple of Gold. His late friend and colleague, Professor Taylor, had been able to decipher some ancient maps before his untimely murder. These maps indicated that an ancient Phoenician barge had gone down somewhere in the Caribbean near the island of St. Croix. This barge contained the maps with the precise location of the Temple of Gold that for years Quint had been seeking out. On one dive down to the bottom of the sea with Quint, Nola believed she saw something in a secluded area that looked promising. Quint warned her it was unsafe to venture there. But in pure Nola fashion, she let her curiosity get the best of her and checked it out anyway. Nola got stuck among the coral reefs, and would have died there had Quint not rescued her. They struggled to the surface of the water, and breathlessly Quint dragged a choking and sobbing Nola to the safety of the beach. It was there that Quint and Nola shared their first, very passionate kiss. After months of interrupted attempts at kisses, this was quite a pay off. Putting a damper on their ensuing romantic bliss, Helena Manzini showed up on the island. They found out that Silas Crocker was, indeed, on the island. In a dive a few days later, Nola found the maps Quint had been searching for and in a desperate attempt to win Quint's praises for herself, Helena swooped down and tried to seize them from Nola. They struggled and in the mayhem, Helena's oxygen tank was disconnected. Helena turned it around and claimed that Nola tried to steal the maps from her. In his frustration, Quint wanted no part of the cat fight and was stern with both women, but helped Helena who almost drowned from the disconnected oxygen tank. In a fit of anger and jealousy, Nola swam to shore, only to be abducted by a waiting Silas Crocker. Quint managed to rescue his love from the volcano pit that Silas cruelly placed Nola in, but just as he was helping her to safety, the volcano started to rumble, revealing the precious Temple of Gold that Quint had spent his entire adult life searching for. There was no time to explore the Temple, as the volcano was erupting, and they had to run for their lives. Assuming the temple was melted in the eruption, Quint was terribly disappointed, and Nola misread those emotions to be upset feelings directed at her. Helena and Quint went back to the main island together, while Nola went back with Gunther.

Quinton was devastated over the loss of the Temple of Gold, but even more devastated when Nola decided to move out of his home. He begged her to come back, but to no avail. After finding out that Nola had come to retrieve her personal belonging and then disappeared, Quint knew something foul had gone amuck. He knew that Nola never would have left Springfield without Kelly Louise and immediately attributed her disappearance to his enemy, Silas Crocker. With the help of Nola's brother, Tony, they were able to determine Nola's whereabouts on a rat infested freighter ship and rescue her from Silas' evil grasp. This did not happen easily, of course. Quint was knocked in the head by Helena with a crowbar and willingly gave up the priceless Golden Cradle as ransom for his beloved. Quint gallantly carried Nola off the horrible freighter and to safety where he told her that his "life has no meaning without her." Unfortunately Nola was seriously ill from the ordeal and would not remember any of Quinton's tender words.

Quinton tirelessly fretted while Nola was in the hospital recovering. No longer able to keep quiet about his intense romantic feelings for Nola, Quint proclaimed his love and adoration to Nola when he thought she was sleeping. Unbeknownst to him, midway through his emotional speech, Nola awoke and heard his words of love, but did not let on, fearful that he would stop. Silas had gotten away after Nola's kidnapping, but Jamie Loomis, one of Silas's stooges who helped kidnap Nola, was found dead up in Canada. The authorities asked Quinton to go to Canada with them to identify the body.

Nola got out of the hospital and after a meeting with the FBI decided to move back into Thornway Road and take her old job back. The FBI, still believed that Quint could have been involved in some nefarious doings with Alan Spaulding and Silas Crocker, asked Nola to spy on him. She agreed, but only to prove that her employer/love interest was innocent of any foul play. Soon the red herring Quint was cleared of any suspicion of criminal activity.

The next drama was that of the "room on the third floor" of Thornway Road. Mrs. Renfield and Mr. McCord kept a secret room that eventually became the temporary room for Rebecca Cartwright. Quint had been engaged to Rebecca several years before when she was involved in a terrible accident and in usual Quint style, he believed he was responsible for her massive injuries. He cared for her and paid for all her surgeries which included extensive plastic surgery to restore her face and vocal cords. She would spend her final recovery time between the last procedures at Cedars Hospital in this secret room. Nola feared that Quint was still in love with this woman. As her condition improved and her bandages were removed, she proved to be a far bigger problem than Helena.

But just when things seemed like they couldn't get worse with the Rebecca situation, Quint finally proclaimed his love again to Nola, and they kissed (of course Mrs. Renfield barged in). They were finally an official couple, and Nola dropped calling him Mr. McCord. Another name changed, when Nola decided to change her child's name to Anastasia Louise. Hoping that Quinton would soon at least be Anastasia's stepfather, she decided to make Quint the baby's godfather, much to Floyd's jealous annoyance. During that time, Quint was also dealing with being blackmailed by Vanessa Chamberlain when she discovered that Quint was her long lost, illegitimate, younger, half-brother, Sean Ryan. Sean had been a product of relationship that widower Henry had with his secretary, Stephanie Ryan. (This understanding of Quint's paternity also explained why he had been so protective of the pregnant, unwed Nola and others like her.) Not wanting Henry Chamberlain to now he was his son, Quint went along with his half-sister's manipulations. As part of the blackmail deal, Vanessa pressured Quint to sign his substantial Spaulding proxy over to her which he did, only until he could find something on her. He found his ace in the hole when he discovered that she and Henry had made a deal for Spaulding and received substantial kickbacks form a company called Jocelyn Electronics. Quint got back his proxy and voted his own stock at the stockholders meeting, putting Alan Spaulding at the helm, ousting Amanda Spaulding and making Vanessa a vice president (working out for Vanessa regardless of her failed blackmail attempt). Quint was truly the man of the hour at that time, and financed his future brother-in-law's new business venture, Tony & Company.

After Christmas, Nola and Quint went to LA to visit Nola's recently departed friend, Gracie. The trip also provided a perfect venue for Quint and Nola's growing passions for one another, until an ill-timed phone call interrupted the inevitable. Romance continued to blossom for Quinton and Nola as Rebecca became more and more of a problem. She was blaming Quint of having pushed her off the cliff all those years earlier, and Quint could not dispute the story as the trauma from the event caused him to block it out. Quint kept promising Nola to get Rebecca out of the house, so they could "start their future together", and Rebecca kept blackmailing Quint to stay. Quint was in a bind that he did not quite know how to get out of.

Rebecca's deeds got more and more dastardly and more and more painful for Nola and Quinton. First she pretended that she couldn't speak when she could. Then she tried to make it appear that Quinton had slept with her, betraying his relationship with Nola, which of course he had not done. Then when he was finally going to make amends with Nola and tell her all his "secrets," Rebecca caused a car accident which put him in the hospital. While hospitalized and believing Quinton could die, Mrs. Renfield finally revealed to Nola that Quinton was Henry Chamberlain's long-lost, illegitimate son, Sean Ryan. Quint recovered and was initially angry that Renfield broke their long standing trust, but then felt relieved that his love Nola knew and would protect his secret from Henry. He told Nola about his childhood growing up with his mother in Mexico until he was five when they moved to Scotland with the Renfields.

His next agenda item was to go back to the mythical Tanquir and unravel the mystery surrounding the death of Professor Renfield (Mrs. Renfield's late husband) that had occurred ten years earlier when he was an archaeology student at Oxford. This was yet another tragedy that Quint felt responsible for. It was also the event that led to the young man changing his name from Sean Ryan to Quinton Ryan McCord. In his efforts to uncover the truth, he got trapped with his enemy Silas Crocker in the same cave where Prof. Renfield died, and in doing so discovered that, in fact, Silas was responsible for his mentor's death. Much to the chagrin of Vanessa, Nola, knowing that Quint was in dire jeopardy, went to Henry Chamberlain and revealed the truth about Quint's paternity. Meanwhile believing he was dying in the cave, Quint wrote Nola an emotional and romantic letter of how much he always loved her and wanted to have children with her.:

Dear Nola,

The time has finally come to face the fact that I may never see you again. Beautiful, enchanting Nola. I've thought of you constantly during these past few days. Now at last I am finally beginning to understand what is truly precious during a man's short life. Suddenly finding the truth about what happened 10 years ago seems very insignificant when I compare it to the truth that radiates from your smile. I know now that each man is given a few priceless gifts in his lifetime, gifts that are his alone to cherish and fill his days with wonder. You are my greatest gift, Nola. Even now the thought of you bursting into a room filled with plans and hope brings joy to my heart. I was born a melancholy man. As a child I knew great loneliness, and I've always lived with an awareness of the sadness and sorrow of this world. Perhaps that's why I retreated to the past and chose a life where I could dwell on the beauty and the permanence of ideas, objects, and be untouched by the mutability and pain of human emotions. I know now that I was wrong to turn my back on the present. For you have shown me how exhilarating it can be. You are my teacher, my catalyst, my guardian angel. You have taught me the simplicity of love. I used to marvel at how natural the art of living was for you, Nola. It's always been so difficult for me. But I was beginning to learn. I have seen the world through your eyes, and I truly believe that tomorrow can be better than today, for all the pain in the world is worth enduring when you can share the incredible sweetness of the woman you adore. Thank you, Nola. Thank you for teaching me to love. Silas is dying, but I would save him if I could. In spite of all the sorrow he has caused, I can only feel pity for him. He was a sad man with a wasted life. For him there was no Nola, no Anastasia, no world of love. I am fortunate my darling, for even now I am happy. Knowing I have your love, how could I be otherwise? This is the end, my darling Nola, and still there is so much that I must say to you, so many things I want you to know, so many memories I want you to preserve. Our first kiss, when was it? It seems years ago, back before the start of time, when life seemed endless. And now, there is no time. No time to tell you how I feel, no time to tell you what we could have done. The children ... our children ... they would have been so strong, so happy. And we would have loved them, Nola. Just as I loved you. Dearest Nola, I do love you. I've always loved you.

Nola received that letter after Quint was out of harms way. Henry used his contacts and wealth to rescue his son from the cave and capture the unscrupulous Tanquir "officials" that assisted Silas in his malicious plot. Both Silas and sadly Quint's friend and fencing partner, Gunther died in the cave. Quint and Nola had a romantic reunion and took a transatlantic cruise back to the States. On that cruise, things became very heated with the couple, but after all her problems of the summer of 1981 and having a child out of wedlock, Nola decided that as much as she wanted to, she and Quint should wait to make love. Quint was very understanding. Nola and Quint also decided in the best interest of Henry that they would not reveal to him that his beloved daughter, Vanessa, had known his identity for months

Upon returning to Springfield, there was one last outstanding thing that Quint needed to resolve before he could ask Nola to become his wife, Rebecca Cartwright! Quint finally revealed to Nola the details about Rebecca's accident, and that he could not remember his part in it. He also admitted that they had been engaged, and when he came back to her after a three month work related absence, he found out that she had gone off and married another man. He also revealed to Nola that Rebecca had been carrying his child when she fell, causing her to lose the child. Nola had no doubts whatsoever in her mind that Quint had not harmed Rebecca. Before Quint was to propose to Nola, he had another unfortunate run in with Rebecca (revealed to have been previously known as Mona Enright, a friend of Vanessa's) where it was revealed that the man she had married all those years back was Mark Evans (a.k.a Sam Pasquin). Additionally, the child was Sam's, not Quint's, and Sam was the one who pushed her. Quint was innocent of yet another thing that he tortured himself over. Not wanting to waste one more moment, Quint asked Nola to be his wife. On the rocky cliff, Nola joyously agreed.

So Nola could take the proper surname when they wed, Quint legally changed his last name to Chamberlain before the wedding. Henry and Vanessa threw them an elaborate Antebellum Costume Party in honor of their engagement. Quint and Nola, after much debate and coaxing from Henry, decided to move out of their home on Thornway Road after they were married and in with Henry and Vanessa.

Quint and Nola married on June 24, 1983. Immediately after the nuptials, Quint surprised his new bride with a ride in a hot air balloon. The reception followed at Company, and Mrs. Renfield revealed to the newlyweds that she was moving to Scotland to be with her sister. The Chamberlains embarked on a romantic honeymoon to Ireland and then later Scotland. While on the honeymoon, the innkeeper where they were staying entangled them in the mystery of an old Irish legend of star crossed lovers. It turned out that Nola and Quint were more or less incarnations of these lovers named John Ryan and Nora Reardon. Quint's birth name was Sean Ryan and Sean is Gaelic for John, and Nola was almost given the name of Nora until her mother at the last minute decided on Nola. Quint and Nola recited their wedding vows at the altar of the church where these young lovers were to wed in 1883, and for the first time in 100 years the church bell rang and the lovers and Quint and Nola were united for eternity.

They returned to Springfield and got embroiled in the solving of the mystery of the fishing picture. In September 1983, Nola discovered that she was pregnant, much to the delight of her husband, Quint. Quinton was approached to work as a professor or archaeology at the local University. He also got involved with Dr. John Stevens regarding the Dreaming Death mystery. Dr. Stevens later revealed himself to be Dr Jim Reardon, Nola's older brother, thus Quint's brother-in-law. Around that time, it became a concern of Quint and Nola's that their daughter Anastasia was not yet speaking. After taking her to some specialists, they realized that she had a hearing problem that could easily be corrected. Nola took Anastasia out of town for surgery and therapy (LB's maternity leave). She came back with Anastasia just in time to attend Tony and Annabelle's wedding as a very pregnant matron on honor. She went into labor at the ceremony, two weeks early, and after Quint passed out in the delivery room, she gave birth to Quinton's son, Anthony James Chamberlain (called AJ) in May 1984.

Life continued as it does for most couples with a new baby, until a twelve year-old, orphaned, computer genius named Jonathan Brooks showed up on their doorstep. Quint bonded with the boy who reminded him so much of himself as a child. Jonathan later tried to convince Quint that he was his biological father, making up a story about being the son of Devon Wayne ( an ex-lover of Silas Crocker and late-friend of Quint's). Quint knew this was not possible, but both he and Nola felt badly for the boy and helped him to find his natural parents, when it was revealed that the parents he had been orphaned from were adoptive parents.

In 1985, Quint was asked to go to Tanquir for an extended period of time to follow up on Prof Renfield's work. Quint and Nola packed up their family and left Springfield for Tanquir on April 25, 1985.

In 1993, the entire Reardon family returned to Springfield to attend Maureen's funeral. Nola and Quint returned, but were never shown on camera.

In 1995, Nola returned alone to Springfield. The absence of Quint was explained away by story of infidelity. Quint returned for his father's funeral. It soon became abundantly clear to Quinton that he made a huge mistake and was still very much in love with Nola and wanted her back. However, he had to convince his beloved of this, and it would not be an easy task as she was still very hurt. Nola and Quint were on the path to reconciliation when the redux love story was promptly dropped and left unresolved. Quint simply disappeared, and it was mentioned that he went to Afghanistan on a dig. Eventually a character beaten Nola left Springfield as well, to presumably live near their daughter in California and ultimately reconcile with Quint.

It is possible that a reconciliation did occur since, in the fall of 2009, Nola brought Vanessa a gift from Quint on the day of her wedding to Billy Lewis.

Thanks to http://www.quintnola.com/ Quint & Nola Homepage