Nicholas N. Price – 50th Reunion Essay

Nicholas N. Price

402 Waring Road

Elkins Park, PA 19027

nprice@schnader.com

Spouse(s): Natalie (1983)

Child(ren): David, Melissa, Aaron, and Elena

Grandchild(ren): Nathan, Olivia, and Andrew

Education: NYU Law School, JD 1974

National Service: National Guard, 1970–1976

Career: Labor and employment attorney for 30 years at Schnader, Harrison, Segal & Lewis

Avocations: classical music; current events; history

College: Pierson

Life since graduating from Yale has been very good to me, though perhaps some might consider it boringly normal. With a lottery number of 28, I joined the National Guard to avoid the draft and, after basic training, started law school at NYU, graduating in 1974. After a one-year clerkship on the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, I joined the Philadelphia law firm of Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP, where I spent my entire career. I retired in 2014.

My area of practice focused on labor and employment law, generally representing employers in the full gamut of employer-employee issues. For the most part, the work was intellectually stimulating and rewarding, but as the years rolled on, the pressures and hours took their toll, so I have had no problem at all adjusting to retirement.

Notably, this career had nothing to do with what I studied at Yale, where I majored in Asian history—a field I found interesting (among other things, it meshed well with my year in Vietnam and Hong Kong under the five-year BA program) but of no practical value to me. So, since graduating, I have often questioned the value of a liberal arts education. I concluded that it can make one a better and more rounded person, but not necessarily employable. Hence, I went to law school to obtain a marketable skill.

On a personal front, I got married in 1983, and my wife (Natalie) and I have four children (including two stepchildren from her first marriage) and three grandchildren. Primarily due to Natalie’s mothering skills, we survived the child-rearing and adolescent years with minimal drama, with no substance abuse, legal, or mental health issues, which have plagued a number of our neighbors’ kids. All four children have grown up to be well-adjusted and responsible adults, and are themselves married (to people we like) and are gainfully employed homeowners. Best of all, they all live within about a half-hour drive from us.

Around 2000, after a long break in physical activity while working and raising a family, I resumed an exercise program, taking up running. Between 2003 and 2013, I completed five marathons and over a dozen triathlons, as well as many shorter road races. However, I had to stop these activities a few years ago, as age and health problems have caught up with me. So now, in our golden years, Natalie and I are enjoying our grandchildren and traveling while we still can.