BORN: 4/1/1955 On June 4, 1998, sentenced to life in prison. Serving sentence in federal prison in Florence, Colo. Biography Terry Nichols grew up, as one of four children of Robert and Joyce Nichols, on a family farm in Lapeer, Michigan. A shy boy and an uninspired student, Nichols graduated in 1973 from Lapeer High School with a 2.6 grade point average.After one year at Central Michigan University, Nichols returned to Lapeer to help his recently divorced father with the family farm. Nichols married Lana Walsh in 1981 and the couple had a son the following year. Nichols paid the bills with a variety of jobs, ranging from managing a grain elevator, to doing carpentry work and selling life insurance.In May 1988, at age 33, Nichols joined the Army. He met Timothy McVeigh in basic training at Fort Benning, and their friendship continued to grow as the two served in Fort Riley, Kansas. Nichols and McVeigh shared a common hostility to gun control and a common belief in the importance of sur