Lavender attended Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania, and later studied the law and liberal arts at Princeton University.
He attended high school at Mercersburg Academy before enlisting in the United States Navy, serving as a First Class Petty Officer in the Pacific during World War II.
He obtained his primary and secondary education at Immaculate Conception Academy in Mayagüez and Mercersburg Academy in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania.
His father sent him to study in the United States, where he first attended Charlotte Hall Military Academy in Maryland, then Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania for high school, and then graduated as an engineer from the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey.
After graduating from Mercersburg Academy, a boarding school in south-central Pennsylvania, she graduated from Middlebury College in 1994 and was Miss Vermont also that year.
Academy Awards | United States Military Academy | Russian Academy of Sciences | National Academy of Sciences | American Academy of Arts and Sciences | Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film | United States Naval Academy | United States Air Force Academy | Royal Academy of Music | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences | Brooklyn Academy of Music | Phillips Academy | Royal Military Academy Sandhurst | Phillips Exeter Academy | Chinese Academy of Sciences | British Academy of Film and Television Arts | National Academy of Engineering | Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts | Academy of Fine Arts | British Academy | Academy Award for Best Picture | Bulgarian Academy of Sciences | Polish Academy of Sciences | Academy Award for Best Visual Effects | New York Academy of Sciences | Academy Award for Best Original Song | Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts | Sibelius Academy | National Defence Academy | French Academy of Sciences |
Nolde also donated $15,000 to Mercersburg Academy in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania to build a gymnasium there to honor his son Carl, who had died while he was a student at the academy.