Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US campus) a devotedly hard worker.

1980		L. Birnbach Official Preppie Hbk 90: 13 Words For The Person Who Is Working — 1. Grind 2. Squid 3. Pencil Geek 4. Cereb 5. Grub 6. Weenie 7. Throat 8. Tool 9. Wonk 10. Gome 11. Nerd 12. Spider 13. Conch.
1982		W. Safire What’s The Good Word? 300: At some southern colleges [excessively hard workers] are ‘gomes’ [...] The derivation of this word undoubtedly comes from ‘Gomer’ as in ‘Gomer Pyle.’.