Howard Nichols

From Palo Alto Wiki

Howard Nichols was born in Palo Alto in 1940. Nichols is a graduate and was headmaster of the Harker School, formerly the Harker Academy. The Harker Academy was a Palo Alto prep school until 1959, when the school merged with the Palo Alto Military Academy and moved to San Jose. Nichols' father, Maj. Don Nichols, was superintendent of the Harker Academy from 1950 to 1973. Nichols took over for his dad in that year.

[edit] Memories

Nichols' various memories were printed during the Palo Alto Centennial in 1994.

In the late 1950s, Harker lived with his father on part of the old Scholl Ranch on Arastradero Road. One of his childhood responsibilities on the farm was gathering eggs from the chickens to take to the school. Nearly 100 boys boarded at the school, and the Harker farm provided all the school's eggs.

"Gathering eggs wasn't a finely tuned process, the way it is now. We had about 200 chickens, and I used to spend several hours a day with the chickens getting the eggs. I don't recall ever getting bit, but I do remember that the students ate a lot of eggs. Almost every morning for breakfast they used to make scrambled eggs or French toast. Of course, we didn't know anything about cholesterol at the time."