David Nulle is a jolly man, with his cap set at a jaunty angle and that devilish grin. You may know him best as the costumed zamboni driver. Officially, he is the night manager at Lynah Rink, but that barely begins to describe him. He is also a skating instructor, dance teacher and cultural aficionado, to name just a few of his titles. He describes himself as a “fine[ly] blended wine.” I haven’t taken Wines so I don’t know about that, but I can certainly say the man behind the Zamboni is someone worth knowing.

To begin with, Nulle says that as an employee he sees himself as a “host” for those who come to use the ice. He began his job by chance — mainly because it was hiring at the right time.

Nulle said, “If they had been hiring chicken farmers, my life would have turned out totally different.”

Royal Cruise

However, it is now clear that the rink has become part of Nulle’s ‘blended wine’ personality. He told me everything about the rink from the number of plastic panes surrounding the rink (117) to the maintenance schedule for the zamboni (a thorough shine once a week). Nulle says he enjoys his job as night manager because of the atmosphere. “People come here [to the rink with the purpose of] having fun or work[ing] hard on something they really enjoy,” he said. As people skate, he enjoys watching them “getting better, improving their skill as well as improving their life character with something that will stay with them for the rest of their life.”

Nulle used to teach beginning skating, and he said he especially enjoyed watching people who began the class as novices practice and improve until they became comfortable enough to join the intramural hockey team. As a teacher, Nulle has also taught ballroom dancing at Cornell and helps out with Latin-Israeli dance classes when he has the time. Nulle says he enjoys dancing and skating because of how fluid the movements are. He has also danced at numerous places and knows tons of different dance types, ranging from Macedonian to Kurdish, from Brittany to Gypsy — and all those in between.

Nulle says his interest in dance stems from the romantic and gypsy in his blood. His parents’ romance began through dancing. They met during a dance at Willard Straight, and when his mother got home from the dance she wrote in her diary, “Tonight I met the man I am going to marry.” Nulle didn’t find a wife on the dance floor, but he says he was able to show similar passion. He says some people used to say he was the best dancer in Ithaca: not because he was especially competitive but because he “could take a woman and float her around the dance floor so that she felt like she was Ginger Rogers or the Queen of Sheba.” One of the proudest nights of his life was when Nulle was out dancing at NYU and was asked to join two dance troupes in one night.

In addition to dancing, Nulle’s hobbies include learning about different cultures and history. He is intrigued by the “crazy, wonderful, sometimes awful things people do.” Nulle used to follow culture by traveling nearly every summer and has seen most countries in Europe. The costumes he wears during hockey games come from all over the world and are mostly authentic, reflecting a certain culture or area. In recent years, Nulle has also begun coin collecting. He says he likes the idea of “owning a little part of history” and carrying it around with him. He showed me coins from the Byzantine Empire, as well as some engraved with faces of Marc Anthony, Alexander the Great and Constantine the Fourth. The coin with the best story is from the reign of Aurelian in 274 ACE. Aurelian is the ruler also known as the ‘Father of Christmas’ because he standardized the date that Christians later appropriated to use as Christmas. Nulle told me Dec. 25th was not originally a Christian holiday, but because it was already a set celebration, Christians used it to celebrate the birth of Christ.

Nulle’s connection to royalty extends beyond the possession of monarchial currency. His mother used to say he was descended from Irish kings and Scottish chieftains. Recently, however, he has developed a much more solid claim. Under the U.S. Constitution, the government is unable to dispense titles of royalty, but there are no laws restricting regular citizens from bestowing titles of royalty on other citizens. As a result, several years ago an enterprising citizen began the aptly-named New American Aristocracy. One of the owners of Shangrila, a store where Nulle gets many of his costumes, became a member of the group and suggested Nulle become a member of the newly reinstated aristocracy. Consequently, Nulle was recently declared the Earl of Varna and Duke of Dryden. At the moment, the extent of the aristocracy is restricted to central New York, but the organization recently received requests for titles from people in New Orleans and Los Angeles.

Don’t let his titles stop you from talking to him if you stop by the rink — you would be missing out on more than a chance to shake the hand of a new royal.