The Record Tuesday, January 17, 1995
Nate Sleeper has a clear recollection of the first day of his junior year at Hackensack High School. He entered Robert Curtis' physics class, realized how difficult it was going to be, and immediately considered dropping it. Curtis remembered a cocky but intelligent student who was late for class and got detention.
But Sleeper stayed in the class, received an A, and credited Curtis for making him a more serious student. He has carried that lesson with him in his academic career.
The senior economics major at Williams College was one of 29 NCAA football players recently awarded a $5,000 postgraduate scholarship. The defensive end recorded 39 tackles for the undefeated Ephs squad and was one of only seven Division III players to be honored. Sleeper also was a first-team District 1 All-Academic selection and was on the Academic All-New England Small College Athletic Conference football team.
"Mr. Curtis got me on the right path," Sleeper said. "He was the first teacher who ever really challenged me."
"That's very gratifying and makes mevery happy," said Curtis, a lawyer who has been teaching at Hackensack for 26 years. "I'm very impressed. I would have expected something like this from him."
Not that Sleeper doesn't still rely on his natural smarts. You see, this sleeper is a crammer. "I stay up late every night," he said. "I can't really study unless I have a lot of pressure on me."
You want pressure? How about having a summer job that answers to the Oval Office. Sleeper was an intern in the executive office of the President's Council on Economic Affairs, in Washington, D.C. "I mostly did research," he said. "I did work on one report, a big environmental report on climate change. It was a global project and we worked on the lead of one of the chapters. I got to talk to people all over the world."
Sleeper has traveled throughout the United States and is able to find a friend's house in most major cities when he needs a place to stay. Before moving to Hackensack as a high school sophomore, his family lived in St. Paul, Minn., and before that in Chicago. "It's been pretty good because I've kept in close contact with people everywhere," Sleeper said.
Right now, he calls Alexandria, Va. his home. Vicki, moved there with Nathan's stepfather, David Turetsky, a year ago. Both are lawyers; Vicki works in poverty law and David for the U. S. Department of Justice.
Sleeper's commutes are divided among Alexandria, North Jersey, and Pennsylvania, where his girlfriend attends Susquehanna. After graduation he hopes to add New York City to his list of residences. "I'd like to work for a couple of years in New York and then go to business school," Sleper said.
But when he visits home, he becomes an easier target than he was for offensive linemen. At least for his 4 1/2-year-old-sister, Kate.
"She thinks I'm just a personal play toy," Sleeper said. "She ownes me when I go home."
"She has him wrapped around her little finger," his mother said.