In the end, the producers, directors and actors he has critiqued tend to use the same word when they talk about Lincoln. That word is "joy."

Chris Lino, managing director of Pioneer Theatre Company, says Lincoln communicated joy to his readers. "He was so clearly and passionately an advocate for live theater."

Theater criticism is a perfectly honorable profession, Lino notes. But sometimes critics are so caught up in analyzing a production that they lose sight of the joy of a live experience. "Ivan never did."

Mark Malcolm at the Egyptian Theatre Company in Park City says when he thinks of Lincoln, he thinks of the way he looks in the Deseret Morning News ads. Those ads show Lincoln sitting in a theater, holding a fistful of tickets, and grinning. Malcolm calls it, "The quintessential Ivan — with a big warm smile, showing an obvious love for what he does."

Sally Dietlein, executive producer at Hale Centre Theatre, says it gives her joy to speak about Lincoln. She credits him with being a champion of the grassroots arts. "He felt that community theater was good for the community. He took delight in finding those little places, ferreting them out, making sure people knew they were there, trying to do theater."

She credits him also with knowing how to hold different theaters to different standards. Professional, semi-professional, community and student theater — he understood them and judged them accordingly. Dietlein also enjoyed his sense of humor.

When the Hales first opened a theater in Utah, they hung black drapes in their storefront windows, and Lincoln told them it looked like something X-rated was going to be happening inside. Later he learned that in order to exit stage right and enter stage left in that old building, actors had to run outside, changing costumes as they ran.

Lincoln had a heyday with the idea of costumes being shed in the parking lot. "He always laughed at us," Dietlein says, laughing herself.

Nancy Melich was the theater critic for the Salt Lake Tribune when Lincoln took over the job at the News. Over the years, she and Lincoln became friends. She says he loved his job, and it was evident in his writing.

Melich credits him with having a consistent voice. She says, "He was moderate without being a prude. He was never self-righteous." Melich adds, "He covered things that I think some readers of the Deseret News would just as soon he didn't cover — but that never stopped him."

One of her most poignant memories, Melich says, is of the time the Salt Lake Acting Company did "Angels in America." She and Lincoln both found it to be an extraordinary script. "It has Mormon characters and homosexual themes and religious themes."