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| Like a rock: Dave Millar at Pearce Rock, Quebec. |
After graduating from Bucknell University in 1973, Dave Millar
spent seven years in retail operations in Connecticut. He relocated to
Greenville, SC, started taking computer programming classes, and on June
1, 1982, he began his “final” career with Southern Bank & Trust as a
“programmer trainee”, and worked with financial institutions lasting 35 years,
when he retired on June 2, 2017. The last 29 years were spent working in
Charlotte, NC, with Wells Fargo and predecessor banks (Wachovia and First
Union). His technical skills enhanced from mainframe programming to data
analytics and data mining, in corporate audit services, specializing in wealth
and capital management, and retirement services.
Where do you live now? Where have you lived since graduating?
My wife, Jan, and I currently live in Concord, NC (home of NASCAR,
but not avid fans), about 25 miles northeast of Charlotte, since January of
1988 (we met in Greenville, SC, in 1986 and married on May 23, 1987).
Since we have both retired in 2017, Concord will be our final home, literally
and figuratively.
What was your sense of community in your class/in the school at
NPHS?
My family moved to North Plainfield from Saddle Brook, NJ, before
I started seventh grade, so, I did not have any significant history, and not
many close friends in North Plainfield before I started NPHS. It was
primarily through playing sports (soccer, basketball, and baseball) and
involvement in service clubs (Key Club and Hi-Y) that I developed a number of
“peripheral friends.” I probably hung out” and had as many friends with
my brother, John, who was two grades ahead of me.
What experiences in high school, positive or negative, helped to
shape you as a person?
Actually, I recall the class that I feared the most was Mrs.
Blevins’ Junior Speech class, and giving my initial speech probably caused me
the greatest anxiety, given my extreme introverted personality. However,
it probably proved to be the one class that best prepared me for adult
life, and I have felt comfortable ever since giving speeches and talks to all
types of audiences.
Do you have any regrets about your experiences during your high
school years?
Although sports precluded my trying out for the class play, I wish
I could have been involved in the drama club. I am still in awe of how
actors and actresses can remember all of their lines!!!
Now, 50 years later, has your perspective on your high school
years changed at all? If so, how?
I did teach Junior Achievement Project Business for five years at
Concord, NC, in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, attempting to instill a sense
of managing your income and expenses, and preparing a “personal budget” (maybe
I was somewhat successful as my stepdaughter has become so fiercely independent
and fiscally responsible). What amazes me now is how we had to learn all
of our arithmetic tables longhand with memorization, and type up our term
papers on the manual typewriter. Today’s students only know about
personal computers, iPads, smartphones, and even the calculator has become
obsolete.
What is your fondest memory of your years at NPHS?
Making the varsity soccer team in my first year trying out for the
sport, and NPHS making it to the state quarterfinals, losing to Glen Rock
3-0. I started as goalie at Bucknell my junior and senior years, and I
believe I played against Russell Pollack when Bucknell competed against
Cornell. Yes, my four years at NPHS prepared me well for college and
ultimate adult careers.
What was the craziest or stupidest thing you did in high
school?
I fell asleep and snored in Mr. George Teets’ U.S. History
class. If those of you who remember having Mr. Teets for a teacher, you
can understand the possibility of this happening to you.
What was your proudest accomplishment in high school?
I was elected to the National Honor Society in my Senior
Year. Also, I was awarded the Senior Athlete of the year in
1969.
Who was your favorite teacher?
As I perused my high yearbook, I guess the two teachers who made
the most positive impact on me at NPHS were Mr. McKenna (Sophomore
Biology) and Miss Bellino (Junior Chemistry).
What was your worst class?
I guess trying to learn French for three years from Mrs. Johnson
with her “southern accent”, who attended Claflin College in South
Carolina.
What is your most powerful or haunting memory during your years at
NPHS?
Although I did not know Bob Gardner that well, his death from an
automobile accident in October of 1968 was my first experience of death, and
has forever haunted me but prepared me for family tragedies. In the fall
of 1979, ten years after high school, I lost my brother, John (class of 1967)
to Hodgkins Disease, and four weeks later (on December 7, 1979), my
sister, Michele (four years younger than me), was killed in a one-car
automobile accident. My dad took his own life (bi-polar depression) on
July 3, 1988. I do not know how my mother carried on with life for myself
and my youngest sister, (Marilyn). Now, Mom is currently battling severe
dementia, with Marilyn (my ultimate saint) as caregiver.
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| Tossing a rock: Dave Millar's no-hitter against Watchung, spring of 1969. |
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