Gino Riffle

At Northwood School’s annual holiday party on Dec. 19, Gino Riffle was announced as its 11th Head of School. Riffle, who also serves as Northwood’s Director of Admissions, was selected following an intensive search that included applications from over fifty qualified candidates nationwide.

Northwood, a co-educational boarding and day school with just under two hundred students, was founded in 1905 with quarters divided between Lake Placid and Florida. Then, as now, it’s setting in the Adirondacks, and getting the students to participate in outdoor activities, was an essential aspect of attending the school.

Initially, Northwood was an all-boys school chartered under the auspices of the Lake Placid Club. When the Club went all in on becoming a year-round destination and a center for winter sports, Northwood School discontinued its winter semester in Florida and launched its winter sports activities that remain vibrant. Since then, around three dozen graduates have participated in the Olympics in various sports and many other vibrant NHL hockey careers.

In 1928, Northwood separated from the Club and came under the control of the Lake Placid Education Foundation, receiving its Regents Charter in 1934. For two years during WWII, Northwood was taken over by the US Army, and in 1997, it separated from the Foundation, operating fully under its charter and board of directors. During John Friedlander’s term as headmaster, the school became coed, and under current Head Michael Maher, the number of international students was greatly expanded.

Maher is particularly proud of the changes made to the curriculum during his tenure. “We created an inspiring curriculum that gives our kids agency in the opportunity to design their courses around their passions and interests,” said Maher. “It’s made for a richer academic culture at the school and helps differentiate kids. As a result, we’ve found them to be more joyful in an academic setting than when they focused on a typical curriculum.”

Michael Maher

Maher pointed out that students rarely come back to visit and talk about a new humanities building, but they do come back and talk about the coaches and teachers who helped them move on. Such comments reflect how human connections change minds as much as nourishing healthy bodies and providing quality instruction.

Gino Riffle is one such person, one who has deeply touched many students in his ten-year relationship with Northwood as a math teacher, hockey coach, and mentor. Riffle understands that Northwood’s priority is to help students find their inner passion and develop character skills that are critical for them to thrive in an uncertain future where new, unimagined careers will exist and seemingly core programs may well fade.

“Mike, having been a headmaster before, knew how to look under the hood; thus, at Northwood, it didn’t take him much time to understand the school,” said board and search

committee member Karen Miller. “So, we were looking for someone with experience in fundraising, teaching, and working in a school’s different departments, as it’s important to know what your students are going through. Gino had those experiences, and over the next six months, Mike will introduce him to our lead benefactors and sponsors.”

“We were also looking for a person who understands Northwood, unlike a normal New England prep school,” said Miller.

Northwood has the Adirondack environment and all that has to offer, Olympic caliber venues where the elite athletes train and compete, historical assets that range from Forts Ticonderoga and Crown Point to John Brown’s Farm, coupled with a growing array of strategic partners that range from the Lake Placid Center for the Arts to NYSEF, ORDA, and such environmental agencies as the Adirondack Council and the Ausable River Association. Many New England schools tend to be isolated from nearby communities, while Northwood is increasingly engaged with Lake Placid and others nearby.

Every member of Northwood’s search firm RG175 had been a school head. They took a deep dive into Northwood to help the board find the most qualified person.

“Having a search firm completely validates Gino,” said Miller. “Talking about looking under the hood, Gino has been at Northwood ten years, he knows what to expect, already has good community connections, and the great thing is, he wants this to be his last job. He wants to be here ten to twenty years.”

Gino Riffle feels centered, the kind of person you’d like to have with you if your community is hit by a hurricane. He enjoys being with people of all ages and who have a wide array of life experiences. In high school, Riffle’s 9th grade biology teacher, Mrs. Ring, often told him he should be a teacher and a coach, a vision he didn’t particularly understand or see himself doing at the time.

“In my junior year of college, I realized she was right,” said Riffle.

Several years after college, a former classmate who graduated from Kimball Union Academy heard they were looking for a person who could coach football, hockey, and baseball and teach math. He recommended Riffle. So began Riffle’s career as an educator. At Kimball Union, Riffle learned that, unlike public high school, you teach and coach students, dine with them, and develop deep relationships; you get to interact with them in various situations.

“Doing that, you’re able to coach them better and teach them better because you understand them more, and they, in turn, will also be coached better and taught better because they know you better,” said Riffle.

Riffle hopes to achieve financial stability at Northwood, increase outreach to the Lake Placid-Adirondack community, and create more connections and community-based partnerships to expand non-traditional opportunities for their students.

“When you are connected to a community the way we are, having our students and staff have connections outside the school property, I think, are hugely important in terms of growth,” said Riffle. He added, “I never set off to be the head of a school. It was never my intention, but when Mike decided to retire, then it was to be the Head of School at Northwood. There is something special about this place that resonates with me, my wife, and our daughter. It’s the right place.”

When the faculty and students heard Riffle had been selected, they responded with loud cheers and applause. Gino Riffle will step in as Head of School, July 1. Maher continues as Head until then.