Class Note 1970
Issue
May-June 2024
Have you ever wondered how classmates ended up with nicknames that aren’t based on their first or last names?
John McCravey reveals that his nickname dates to the military prep school he attended in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which required haircuts every two weeks. Upperclassmen on the soccer team saw his round shaved head and started calling him “Moonbeam.”
David Burbank writes, “My father wanted to name me ‘Spike’ but I was born five weeks early. After he and my uncle saw me at the hospital, they repaired to a local pub. After a few beers my uncle announced, ‘He’s too small to be a Spike, he’s a ‘Tack.’ ”
Most of us wouldn’t recognize William H. Johnson,but “Star” gets our attention. “During freshman week I was sitting at a table with some guys at the Hop snack bar. We were looking through a Green Book, making funny comments about each of us and other guys in the photos. When they got to me and read all of my high school activities, someone said ‘Holy cow (actually, it was more profane), you must have been a star!’ It stuck. I’ve never been able to shed the name. Wherever I lived, there have been Dartmouth friends who call me that even though I introduce myself as ‘Bill.’ ”
At the time Robert Millikin was born, Sparkle Plentywas a character in the Dick Tracy comics. Millikin writes that his mother’s sister was present at his birth and said, “He has such sparkly eyes!” It was “Sparky,” not Robert, from then on. Millikin spent the first dozen years after Dartmouth teaching and coaching in Outward Bound programs and private schools (Proctor Academy and Phillips Andover). He got an M.B.A. from Yale in 1979. Using his architecture major, he spent many years in construction management for Vermont companies, including Ben & Jerry, Burton Snowboards, and King Arthur Flour.
Jon Nistad writes, “I was playing hearts with Karl Steinmanis and two others in our freshmen year, third-floor Topliff. We were all giving our histories. I mentioned that, in my mind, my dad was a modern-day Viking. He wanted to name me Igor, Thor, Torga, or some other Scandinavian name. My Polish mother would have none of it, so they settled on Jon (without the ‘h’). From that point, I became ‘Torga’ to that small group, and it spread. Karl became ‘Sven’ at the same time. I don’t recall the details, but it must have been something to do with being from Latvia.”
Karl and his wife, Anda, celebrated their 49th wedding anniversary this past fall on a trip to Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia. “In 2022 we went on a safari to Kenya and Tanzania. When not traveling abroad, we split our time between Naples, Florida, and a lake house in Michigan and have kept our Bengals’ season tickets. Our two daughters are married. Between them, we have four grandkids—truly a blessing.”
—Stuart Zuckerman, P.O. Box 85, Bridgehampton, NY 11932; (917) 559-0063; stuartz@gmail.com
John McCravey reveals that his nickname dates to the military prep school he attended in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which required haircuts every two weeks. Upperclassmen on the soccer team saw his round shaved head and started calling him “Moonbeam.”
David Burbank writes, “My father wanted to name me ‘Spike’ but I was born five weeks early. After he and my uncle saw me at the hospital, they repaired to a local pub. After a few beers my uncle announced, ‘He’s too small to be a Spike, he’s a ‘Tack.’ ”
Most of us wouldn’t recognize William H. Johnson,but “Star” gets our attention. “During freshman week I was sitting at a table with some guys at the Hop snack bar. We were looking through a Green Book, making funny comments about each of us and other guys in the photos. When they got to me and read all of my high school activities, someone said ‘Holy cow (actually, it was more profane), you must have been a star!’ It stuck. I’ve never been able to shed the name. Wherever I lived, there have been Dartmouth friends who call me that even though I introduce myself as ‘Bill.’ ”
At the time Robert Millikin was born, Sparkle Plentywas a character in the Dick Tracy comics. Millikin writes that his mother’s sister was present at his birth and said, “He has such sparkly eyes!” It was “Sparky,” not Robert, from then on. Millikin spent the first dozen years after Dartmouth teaching and coaching in Outward Bound programs and private schools (Proctor Academy and Phillips Andover). He got an M.B.A. from Yale in 1979. Using his architecture major, he spent many years in construction management for Vermont companies, including Ben & Jerry, Burton Snowboards, and King Arthur Flour.
Jon Nistad writes, “I was playing hearts with Karl Steinmanis and two others in our freshmen year, third-floor Topliff. We were all giving our histories. I mentioned that, in my mind, my dad was a modern-day Viking. He wanted to name me Igor, Thor, Torga, or some other Scandinavian name. My Polish mother would have none of it, so they settled on Jon (without the ‘h’). From that point, I became ‘Torga’ to that small group, and it spread. Karl became ‘Sven’ at the same time. I don’t recall the details, but it must have been something to do with being from Latvia.”
Karl and his wife, Anda, celebrated their 49th wedding anniversary this past fall on a trip to Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia. “In 2022 we went on a safari to Kenya and Tanzania. When not traveling abroad, we split our time between Naples, Florida, and a lake house in Michigan and have kept our Bengals’ season tickets. Our two daughters are married. Between them, we have four grandkids—truly a blessing.”
—Stuart Zuckerman, P.O. Box 85, Bridgehampton, NY 11932; (917) 559-0063; stuartz@gmail.com