Early Life
Nichols was born on Staten Island in 1920 to a family of politically active Communist Party members. Nichols's family was active in union organizing and supporting the Republican cause in the Spanish Civil War. He enrolled at Cornell in 1937, but his studies were interrupted by his service in the United States Army during World War II. In 1946, he received his B.S. in electrical engineering, and later received an M.S. in 1949. He earned a PhD at the University of Alaska in 1956.
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