Transcription of Bethel #176
Speaker 1: You’re listening to Love Maine Radio, with Dr. Lisa Belisle, recorded in the studio of Maine Magazine at 75 Market Street, Portland, Maine. Dr. Lisa Belisle is a physician trained in family and preventative medicine, acupuncture, and public health. She offers medical care and acupuncture at Brunswick Family Medicine. Read more about her integrative approach to wellness in Maine Magazine. Love Maine Radio is available for download free on iTunes. See the Love Main Radio Facebook page, or www.lovemaineradio.com for details. Now here are a few highlights from this week’s program.
Matt Ruby: Educators are optimists. I think we believe what we’re doing impacts the future. It goes beyond memory. As we help students become their best selves, we’re helping the world become a better place. I think about my work, and I think about what we’re doing at the school. If I’ve ever contributed something that’s worth attaching my name to, that’s great. But I think what’s really important is what’s happening in the lives of our students, and that’s what carries forward.
Woody Hughes: We’re rather informal. I’ve got to make sure that people understand that when they come. I think they do. A lot of people just appreciate just being able to be this relaxed. Hopefully, I bring that kind of comfort to that situation.
Speaker 1: Love Main Radio is made possible with they support of the following genergous sponsors: Main Magazine; Marcy Booth of Booth, Maine; Apothecary by Design; Mike Le Paige and Beth Franklin of Remax Heritage; Tom Shepherd of Shepherd Financial; Hardingly Smith of The Rooms; and Bangor Savings Bank.
Dr. Belisle: This is Dr. Lisa Belisle, and you are listening to Love Maine Radio. Show #176, Bethel, airing for the first time on Sunday, January 25th, 2015.
Bethel is known for being home to one of Maine’s largest ski resorts, Sunday River. It is also a place of great natural beauty every season of the year. This informs the creative spirit, which can be found in places like Gould Academy and the Mill Hill Inn. Today we speak with Matt Ruby, Gould Academy Head of School, and Woody Hughes, nationally renowed potter and owner of the Mill Hill Inn in Bethel. Thank you for joining us.
Having spent many a lovely winter weekend and winter evening actually as well up in Bethel, it’s a great pleasure to speak with an individual today who is doing the same, and in fact is there full time. This is Matt Ruby, who is Gould Academy’s Head of School. He has been there since 2012. He hails from a similar latitude out in the Minneapolis region. We’re so glad to have you here today.
Matt Ruby: Glad to be here, Lisa. Thank you.
Dr. Belisle: Matt, tell me why it is that you thought it was a good idea to go into education.
Matt Ruby: I didn’t go right into education. I graduated from college. I was in the Navy for 7 years, worked on ships and other things. Then worked in the corporate world for a little while. But there comes a point when you start asking yourself not only is this interesting work, but is it what I care about. I was lucky enough to have the chance to go back to school and become a teacher, work I love to this day.
Dr. Belisle: It’s a slightly different type of thing that you’re doing as a Head of School, which I’ll have you define for us in a minute, as opposed to being a teacher. Both important jobs, but very different.
Matt Ruby: Right. Well, you know, when I became a teacher I thought I’m putting manag3ement behind me. At that point in my life I’d been a naval officer, and then I was again working in the corporate world. I thought, I’m going to go be a craftsman teacher, but I could not shake the habits of thinking about organizations and how to move them forward. So as much as I love teaching, I had the opportunities to move into administration, and to think about the larger questions of how schools can be great, and great at helping students grow and be prepared for the world. That’s what I’m doing in Bethel now at Gould.
Dr. Belisle: You also served as the head of a history department. Is that your educational love?
Matt Ruby: That is. I suppose if I have a hobby, it’s reading history. When I first was hired to be a history teacher, I couldn’t quite believe I was getting paid to do it. Seeing students learn about themselves through the history of their local area, and then sort of working into larger and larger circles of care and scope was pretty exciting work. for me, that was the kind of thing where I’d go into work each day, and you go into class, and it doesn’t take much for kids to get excited. I went home pretty happy with my work every day.
Dr. Belisle: Going to Gould, you were going to a place that actually has its own very rich sense of history. It was founded in 1836.
Matt Ruby: Correct.
Dr. Belisle: So it’s been around for quite a while, longer than many of the schools in Maine. Tell me about Gould’s history.
Matt Ruby: Gould started, as so many schools did in this region, it was the town school, but people paid a tuition to go there before the public education matured. Ultimately it became a private town academy, and there’s several of those still in the state of Maine, very successful town academies. But in 1968, Gould stopped being a private and public entity, and became a strictly private college prep school. So since ’68 we’ve been a college prep private boarding school. Now we’re at 245 students from 18 states, 17 countries. It’s a very exciting place.
Dr. Belisle: What does it mean to be head of school?
Matt Ruby: Being head of school in a boarding school is a very particular thing. This is a place where we all live together, work together. Honestly, when I first started working at working at boarding schools I thought, “This feels very familiar.” It reminded me of being on a ship when I was in the Navy where there were several hundred adolescents and I was a 22-year-old officer, all trying to get through their day and be productive. Our work is not so different, except in our case we’re creating a community where it’s certainly a voluntary association. People decide to join this community because they see it as a place where they can grow, where they can be challenged, and they’re going to find the sort of relationships that really move them forward in their lives. When I first visited Gould I saw that in so many ways. When my wife Kathy and I first visited, part of the process for becoming head of school was to sit with students. There were 3 times where we sat with students. It was just voluntary. Kids would just come if they wanted to. Packed rooms each time, it was very engaged kids. So 40 to 60 kids in a room looking at you, and you’re sitting there. It’s unscripted. What struck me about the students was they just wanted to know who we were. Did they like us? Did we like them? Would we care about their community and take care of it and them? Was I fun? They asked me what was my favorite Harry Potter character, or who was my favorite Harry Potter character.
Dr. Belisle: And who is it?
Matt Ruby: Oh, Ron Weasley, without a doubt. It was just, you sit with those kids and you go, “These were great.” In becoming a head of school, to go back to your question, you’re really looking for a fit. Is this a place where you come and go, “Yeah, we’re really a match,” because you are a spokesman not only for the intellectual life of the school and the reasons to come for very practical purposes, but also the culture of the school. You’re responsible for the mission and all of its facets. If you don’t feel that at a gut level, the work’s pretty tough.
Dr. Belisle: When I think about Gould Academy, I think about skiing. When I was in high school with the Yarmouth High School ski team, we had our Christmas ski camp at Gould Academy. I remember sleeping on the gym floor. I’m sure it’s still just as lovely as it was when I was there. But I know that, and I know that Gould is very successful and has a strong affiliation with Sunday River. You also have downhill. You have cross country. But Gould is also known for other things.
Matt Ruby: Gould is a flat-out great school. But I will say the partnership with Sunday River was one of the things that interested me about the school, and not because I’m a skiier, because I’d never skied down a mountain before I came to Bethel. This may be the year I move from green to blue. We’ll see. But I was interested in a school that had the creativity and agility to have a partnership with an entity like Sunday River, and successfully blend a top-notch academic program with other great opportunities. The great opportunities at the mountain are so far ranging, from the highly competitive skiing, freestyle skiing, snowboarding that most people know about, to the only ski patrol program where students can earn a jacket. Working with Maine Adaptive, and our students helping people have fun and learn and grow on the snow. Teaching local elementary and middle school students how to ski. Sunday River is a laboratory of learning for us. Then that got me thinking, well, if we can do that with Sunday River, and we’ve got a great academic program, let’s do, with the resources at Gould and the incredible capacity of the faculty, let’s do that throughout the school. Which is really a Maine thing. Mainers are doers. They’re makers. That’s kind of a Yankee, that’s in the Yankee DNA. You can see that there. So now we’re working on programs that really create those opportunities for our students.
Dr. Belisle: From what I understand, Gould has worked very hard to move with the times, that you’ve continued to invest in not only your educators, but also in infrastructure, and you really are seeking to be this world class educational institution. Tell me a little bit about that process.
Matt Ruby: I think we’ll use a word that is overused quite a bit, but it’s being a place that is entrepreneurial. One of the things that’s true in just about any endeavor is, you can never really know if you’re right, but you’ll always know if you’re wrong. We can’t be afraid of that in education. We’ve got a responsibility to model for our students being risk takers, being innovative, and looking at the world, recognizing problems, and taking action in response. That means what we are doing is we are having a conversation across our entire community about what that means. How does that turn into action for our students?
What has happened in the past 2 years, in terms of opportunities for our students, 1) we established a partnership with the Manhattan School of Music. So if you are in Bethel at Gould Academy, you are able to take lessons with the faculty of one of the finest conservatories in the country with a proprietary system developed by the Manhattan School of Music. This is not a second class way to take music lessons. This is how talent connects these days, because it’s efficient. Why travel across the country? Why take time parking and finding your way, when you can connect? It’s multiple microphones, multiple cameras, very intimate. We’re finding great success with that. It just opens up opportunities for students.
A next area of specific investment is the creation of our Idea Center. We have renovated an entire floor of our core academic building to create a facility that really revolves around the idea of design thinking, which is a process coming out of the Stanford Design School, a process that gives students an approach to creativity. It just seemed obvious to us that if there’s a writing process that we teach students, if there’s a scientific method, if the world need creative minds, why aren’t we teaching them a creative method, and why aren’t we creating the opportunities and giving them access to the tools to exercise that creative method. So in the Idea Center, what you would see is an open space, thousands of square feet of community space, sliding white boards for impromptu collaborative work, high tables, lots of other moving pieces. But you’d also see a new woodworking shop, a digital peripheral space with 3D printers, C&C routers, laser cutters, and a video and music production room. We really wanted to provide our students with the geography and the resources to take their ideas and move them forward.
Dr. Belisle: What you’re describing is so interesting to me because having lived up in Bethel for a period of time, what I know about Bethel is that there is so much beauty, and there’s so much quiet, and there’s a sort of a sense that you’re away from the noise of everyday life. You’re describing creativity, and I think that both of those, I think necessarily coexist. You actually need to have both space and also interaction in order to generate ideas.
Matt Ruby: Lisa, you’ve hit on something really important about the assets of the school, which are being where we are in the mountains, the beauty of the place. Our students have the opportunity, and in fact have to unplug, and to go interact in the natural world where you cannot modify the environment, as you can in the digital world. You have to deal with what comes your way and be creative and resilient in the face of those challenges. In our program, for example, in our 4-point program, all of our juniors will go on a 10-day expedition in the Mahoosuc Mountains in March. So this is everyone. These are students who’ve grown up in Shanghai and hardly been off a sidewalk until they came to Gould, and they’re off winter camping, working as teams. It’s an amazing thing to see how people grow. They come back from events like that smiling, and as exhausted as they are, just with that look on their face that says, “I can conquer the world. I can do anything.” That’s really what we want to have happen at Gould. We want students to develop that sort of creative confidence that they can do that and to have the skills to support it. But in our community, where they’re working with great adults, great students, they start to develop their moral imagination, too, so they can discern what’s worth doing. It’s not just about being able to do something slick with a 3D printer. It’s about doing something that’s meaningful. That’s one of the reasons we really like the design thinking process, because it starts with empathy. It starts with thinking outside of your head. I think we can all agree, when we’re talking about adolescents, that’s a big move. I think we can all use practice in that.
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Dr. Belisle: Matt, you and your wife Kathy have 2 children who are in their early 20s, and they’ve been around during the time that you have explored the idea of education and creativity and the mind. How has your work as an educator informed your work as a parent, and what would your children say about that?
Matt Ruby: Well, we all know we’re better with other people’s children than our own. I think I’m really lucky that I have an amazing partner in Kathy, my wife, and we have 2 great children. I think they would say that in our house we talk about everything all the time. Even from a young age we were talking about big ideas. My wife said when she first met me and she started getting to know the real me, she was like, “There’s just no thing as small talk in this household, is there?” She’s probably right about that. When I speak with my own children, I see they have a nuance of thinking about the world that I really appreciate, and a willingness to challenge me in my thinking that I appreciate even more. That’s just come from years of conversation. I think it goes back to what is most important in any learning, and certainly at the core of the Gould experience, which is humans learn through relationship. As much as technology has created wonderful opportunities for flexibility in terms of time and space and how we deliver content, still people learn through relationship. That’s how students see their teachers, and that gives them, helps them develop a vision of themselves in the future. You see someone you admire, and you start looking at various people you admire, and think, “Who do I want to be like?” That doesn’t happen in a vacuum. When young people have a rich array of marvelous people around them, that’s inspiring. It let’s them know also that adulthood matters, with them moving towards something of great import. When I talk to our alums and our current students at Gould, that’s really what they talk about in the experience. We have incredibly challenging academics. They’re doing incredibly challenging things in the outdoors, doing things independently, and with faculty. But in the end, it’s that sense of being part of something and working with people that help them see their better selves, that help them challenges themselves. It’s good stuff.
Dr. Belisle: To me, as you’re talking, I’m thinking about the worlds that you came from, the Navy, the military, corporate. I’m thinking about the world that I come from, healthcare, and how so much focus has been on metrics. I know in education there’s so much focus on testing and reaching, and benchmarks and things like this. But I do think that the relationship piece will always be fundamental to any of these places. It’s an interesting question as to how to continue to foster excellence, to continue to foster the, to continue to acknowledge the importance of relationships, and also do what needs to be done in order to meet standards.
Matt Ruby: As an independent school, we don’t have to do all of the testing that other schools do, which gives us a great amount of freedom, but also a great responsibility to push the envelope, to see what’s possible. I think that’s the role of independent schools in American education. We get to be the laboratories. There are a lot of ways we look at our outcomes that are … We certainly, we’re held to a very high standard by our families, the college outcomes, success in college. We’re small enough where we get plenty of feedback on that. So we’re highly accountable in that sense. But we also can look at our own productivity in terms of, we can see the quality of relationship because we can see when things aren’t going right, and we can keep track of that. We can, as you think about the Idea Center and what’s going to happen in that space, which I can’t predict entirely, which is part of the excitement. We’ve been having conversations about measuring our creative productivity as a community. Are things really happening? Are things of value coming out? Are our students discerning things worth doing, or are they just doing … Is this trinket making? Which is not our goal, although it may be a step for some students in terms of skill building. Are we teaching them the right competencies, so when they go to take their idea beyond the school, how is their writing? How is their numerical literacy when they need to put together a business plan, whether it’s for a business like opening a restaurant, or social entrepreneurship, or even an artist is really an entrepreneur. Scientists. So we have a lot of feedback on both the competence level, and then our productivity as a creative community.
Dr. Belisle: Matt, after listening to our conversation, I know that people are going to want to learn more about Gould Academy and what your wonderful history has been, as well as what your future looks like and how they could perhaps get involved.
Matt Ruby: You can go to gouldacademy.org if you want to see what’s going on at the school. If you search on Facebook under Gould Academy, you’ll find an array of Gould Academy. We have a large presence on Facebook because there’s just so much going on that we want to get out there. Certainly give me a call and come on down and have a cup of coffee. It’s always great to come to Bethel, and Gould is a fascinating place. This small school has a richness of program and a creativity and agility that that’s what drew me there, and it just continues to fire me up every day. So come on down.
Dr. Belisle: As an individual who’s interested in history, and I think it’s notable that you joined the Navy, which of course has it’s own rich history, as opposed to the Air Force, and I have family members in both arms of the service, what is it that you hope people will look back on your life, on the life of Matt Ruby, and say? What is your historical imprint going to be?
Matt Ruby: I’m not so concerned about Matt Ruby being remembered. Educators are optimists. I think we believe what we’re doing impacts the future. It goes beyond memory. As we help students become their best selves, we’re helping the world become a better place. I think about my work, and I think about what we’re doing at the school. If I’ve ever contributed something that’s worth attaching my name to, that’s great. But I think what’s really important is what’s happening in the lives our of our studies, and that’s what carries forward.
Dr. Belisle: Well, then let’s take Gould Academy as an entity. What do you hope the legacy of Gould Academy will be.
Matt Ruby: Well, I’ll tell you how I hope we’ll be understood. I hope we’ll be understood as that place you have to go if your mind is on fire and you’re interested in being with creative, supportive people, because you’ve got things you want to do, that you’re ready to go beyond tests. You’re ready to make things and do things that stem from your thesis, your argument, how you want to impact the world. Even if you don’t know what that is, you want to be in the place where you’ll figure that out. I think I want us to be that destination, and it’s one of the reasons I went to Gould, because I think it can be, because in many ways it is.
Dr. Belisle: Where are your children now?
Matt Ruby: My daughter is at Ithaca College. She’s in the vocal performance program, hoping to be an opera singer. My son is an ensign in the Coast Guard, stationed in Boston on the Spencer.
Dr. Belisle: Do you think that the choices that you’ve made in your life have in any way influenced their decisions?
Matt Ruby: They tell me so, and they’re very nice kids to tell me that. I was in the Navy. My son went to the Coast Guard Academy and is now on a cutter. He says that hearing about life at sea certainly affected him. Music runs deep in our family. Johanna, my daughter, happens to be in a different league than any of us. So we’re just excited to watch her become and learn.
Dr. Belisle: In a place like Gould, I would think it’s important to have a spouse who is as invested in the work that you’re doing as it is to have you be invested in the work that you’re doing. How have you and Kathy managed to continue this mutual coexistence for all of these years?
Matt Ruby: Well, you fall in love. I’ll start with that. We met in college, and graduated, and something was missing. We got back in touch, and that’s where it started for us. I think that hasn’t changed. But just as important, we’re a really good team. We complement each other well. I think she’s the smartest person I’ve ever met, and certainly there’s no one I rely on more. When you’re in Bethel doing this work, she’s my best friend. Best decision I ever lucked into making.
Dr. Belisle: Do you think this relationship that you have with Kathy, the team member, the best friend, the wife, the mother of your children, do you think that having this relationship is some way a modeling for the students that know the 2 of you?
Matt Ruby: I think boarding schools, certainly you’re very public figures, and I think a healthy marital relationship is important to the community. It would be unsettling if we weren’t a good team. And kids talk about they like to see us happy together. The faculty tell us the same thing. It’s not something we … It’s not an agenda. It’s just who we are. I will tell you, I think any boarding school worth its salt in the hiring process looks at that, because it is such an all-in job. Kathy has a job outside of Gould, but she still contributes a great deal.
Dr. Belisle: I guess the reason I’m asking this is that it seems as though we spend a lot of time educating our children. As I mentioned to you before, I have 3 children of my own. We spend a lot of time educating our children on facts and figures and ideas and creativity and extracurriculars. I’m not sure how much we educate them in the sphere of relationships, beyond modeling them ourselves. I don’t know exactly how one would go about doing that. But I think if you have somebody else’s children, and you have them in Bethel, they’re away from their families. I would think that the teachers and you yourself and Kathy would be important to that process.
Matt Ruby: I think across, in any school, the first rule is to hire happy, healthy, smart people. There is no amount of policy, there is no curriculum, there’s nothing that replaces that. Because every student is fragile. They’re young human beings, and they’re looking for identity. They’re looking for the relationships that will draw them forward. That’s a tremendous responsibility for the adults involved. You can’t fake it with kids. They’re going to know. So when we bring an adult into the community, we think very carefully. What do they bring, and just on their worst day, with their guard down, which we all have, is this still someone we want around our kids at Gould?
Dr. Belisle: Matt, tell us again the website for Gould Academy.
Matt Ruby: Gouldacademy.org.
Dr. Belisle: I appreciate the work that you’re doing with the children who are to school, the young adults who are going to school at Gould Academy. I know that Bethel is a richer place for having had Gould located there for all of these years. We’ve been speaking with Matt Ruby, who is the Head of School at Gould Academy. Thanks so much for being a part of Love Maine Radio.
Matt Ruby: Thank you, Lisa.
Dr. Belisle: As a physician and small business owner, I rely on Marcy Booth from Booth Maine to help me with my own business, and to help me live my own life fully. Here are a few thoughts from Marcy.
Speaker 7: When was the last time you took a break from what you were doing, from the work that was piled on your desk, and just looked up? I know that during the course of my days, I often forget to take a moment or 2 to just breathe, look up at the sky, and dream. Terrible that I have to remind myself to breathe, but when I do, I feel energized, because in those moments I’m able to let go of the daily grind and think more about what I want to accomplish, how I want my business to grow. Sometimes, those are the ah ha moments. If we all took a few moments out each day to stop what we were doing and dream a little about our business futures, not only would we feel a great sense of calm, but we may come to realize that these dreams can, in fact, come true.
I’m Marcy Booth. Let’s talk about the changes you need. Boothmaine.com.
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Dr. Belisle: Having spent a fair amount of time in Bethel, Maine, as a skier and runner, walker, enjoyer of nature, I also spent time with this next individual, Woody Hughes, at the Mill Hill Inn in Bethel. I should say, I didn’t spend specific time with you, but at your place of work. Woody is an acclaimed potter. He taught at Dalling College, Parsons School or Design, and has given over 60 workshops across the country and internationally. Woody returned to Western Maine in 2001, where he taught pottery and design at Gould Academy for 9 years, leaving in 2010 to open the Mill Hill Inn. Thanks for coming in.
Woody Hughes: My pleasure, absolutely.
Dr. Belisle: We’re really happy that you’re willing to share your story, because it’s kind of an interesting one.
Woody Hughes: I’m coming back. I am a New Yorker, so I am from the evil empire. But I’ve been coming to Maine since mid ’60s. My real introduction to Bethel was back in ’73 when I attended Gould and graduated in ’75.
Dr. Belisle: I think it’s very interesting because … Well, first of all, I need to just put this out there. Your food is fantastic. When we are out in Bethel and your place is open and it’s serving to people who are not just staying at your inn, we are first in line. We reserved for New Year’s Eve. We brought our kids there. Our kids love your food. It’s just so tasty and interesting, and yet unassuming.
Woody Hughes: It’s an awkward subject for me, because technically I’m not trained, where I’m highly trained as a ceramic artist. So to be running in this realm, it creates a little discomfort for me. My approach is very simple. I use good ingredients, and I don’t try to get in over my skill set. I have once described the menu, i finally found a way to describe the menu. It’s sort of like going to, hopefully, a good potluck supper where there’s going to be lots of different tastes. It’s not always well coordinated in terms of a theme for the restaurant, but you’re going to have lots of different tastes. I think that’s what really sums up what we do there, because it’s Mediterranean at times. It’s Asian at times. It’s salads. It’s all geared towards eating a little lighter and not rushing anyone through a meal. It’s sort of how I eat now at my age, just a little more of a sensibility, a few more sensitivities towards what the food’s going to taste like and how it makes you feel afterwards and the next day, and everything like that.
Dr. Belisle: That’s really important. I know I’m not a meat eater, and I don’t eat a lot of non-rice carbohydrates. So to be able to go to a place in Bethel, Maine, and have the option to eat food that’s not just steak and French fries. I guess I just don’t eat that. But I think that it’s interesting that you would have some reservation about putting yourself out there as a chef, because really all you’re trying to do is put out a nice something for the people that are kind of hanging out in Bethel.
Woody Hughes: An in that serves food, I’m very comfortable with that description of what do. Then as people enjoy the food, more and more people come because of word of mouth or whatever, I honestly feel like I have to really be on my game, and I sort of upped my game a little bit. That’s what I’m working on doing, in terms of all aspects of it, how we serve. But I still want to keep it rather informal. Because when I do go to restaurants, I don’t critique the food, because I honestly feel that their skill set’s much better than mine. But I try to look to see what are they attempting to do, and how does the overall presentation work. That’s where I go. How did that meal feel to me? I’m comfortable critiquing other places in those terms. It basically is how I feel throughout the meal, and how I feel after the meal. That’s where I feel like I frame something pretty nice. When I think about it, my original business plan was to have 18 guests, and have 18 guests invite 18 friends. That was sort of the format that I thought I could manage. As each year it’s gotten a little bigger I have to sort of rethink it, and how far am I willing to take it. I’m only open 3 days a week. I can’t see myself going to 5 days a week, because I do all the prep with my son Aaron. We do all the prep, and he helps me cook on the big nights. So I think that’s my limit. Does that make any sense?
Dr. Belisle: No, it makes lots of sense. It’s interesting, because it’s not just your son Aaron, it’s also your wife Lee. She’s your front of the house.
Woody Hughes: Front of the house.
Dr. Belisle: She is so enthusiastic. She runs around. She has her phone in her apron pocket, or whatever. She’s right there. She’s having a conversation with you. You’re eating off of pottery that you’ve created. So it’s not just about, when I say the food is fantastic, it’s also about, it’s the vibe. It’s the fireplace as you come in. It’s the little bar that you have, the great drinks. It feels very warm.
Woody Hughes: It’s supposed to feel like we’re all family. I can start with my bartender Ashley, who I’ve known for 13 years, and I taught at school. I’m that familiar with her. Our relationship is like father-daughter, whatever. Whenever people come in, and then she recommends waitresses, so I’ve never had to place an ad and had someone come in from the outside. I don’t want to say I’m too exclusive. But they all recommend somebody. So it stays, birds of a feather are all in our building. We’re very informal in that way and we’re very comfortable around each other. I think that lends itself to a really pleasant experience. Lee, this is her first year as front of the house. Before she came, I was always cooking, but I was never aware of what was going on in the building. I always had to ask one of the waitresses, “How’s it feel out there? What’s going on out there?” Now I’m so pleased that I have someone out there who can set that stage, make that work. Because, once again, we don’t have very many rules in terms of how we serve and what my expectations are from the girls. I think it’s really clean, in good repair, in terms of appearance, and be yourself is really my only instructions. We’re going to give a few more this year so we make sure that our service is up to speed. But I like that nature, because these kids are all individuals. They’re all special. They all have a story. I want that to be part of the place, as much as anything.
Dr. Belisle: It seems as though, for you, although you’re not teaching at Gould anymore, there is still an educator aspect to your personality, to your persona.
Woody Hughes: Absolutely. It’s exactly the way I taught. I was really hands-off. When I taught pottery, I gave very short demos, and then I would just constantly visit students as they were grappling with whatever I introduced. It’s the same thing when we work in the kitchen or wherever else. I don’t have that many instructions. You’re just sort of thrown in, and I’m there, and then your skill set sort of grows around you in sort of a natural way. I don’t try to force it. I always back them up. If someone gets in the weeds because it’s too many tables, or it’s too this, we all have the capabilities of walking out into the dining room, help someone bus, bring plates out, visit a guest. Those are everyone’s instructions. Everyone’s skill set is growing in a pretty natural, organic way. It goes in many different directions. Everyone has a different strength. I don’t try to curb that. I don’t try to really change anyone from who they are. Then we all start out pretty similar, so I think it’s been working. I have a crew now of about 6, and they’ve been with me for a full year now. I think I’m doing something right. I’m keeping them. I’m paying them well. We’re making all the little adjustments throughout the season to keep people happy that we need to make. I talk to each person individually, “What do you need from me? This is what I need from you. These are the changes I see that we need to take place. Can you do that?” That was the conversation that we had with every employee one on one for the startup of the year last week. I think it works.
Dr. Belisle: It almost seems as though there’s a parallel between what you are doing and creating the Mill Hill Inn and Mill Hill Inn restaurant kind of from good clay. You start with a good something in front of you on the wheel, and then you give instructions as to how the wheel is used, and how to put your fingers in there. But then you really rely on each individual to make their own piece, make their own bowl, make their own whatever it is.
Woody Hughes: The importance of Lee, because now she’s my eyes, or the eyes, not mine, the eyes of the place, then she can make the adjustments. Lee and I are complete opposites. I see the big picture. She sees the details. Between the two of us we really, I think, cover most bases that need to be covered. The kitchen’s just a studio. Pottery is a process. It’s a process that’s repeated. There’s many elements to the cycle to make a pot. It’s just like a kitchen. I’m getting a lot of satisfaction out of doing the kitchen as if it were a studio. I think that’s what keeps it fresh. Because I always ask everyone’s opinion. It doesn’t look like I’m listening. Sometimes people get frustrated. Because I usually divert my eyes, and I don’t really respond. But I’m taking it all in. And then I usually address it a day or 2 or a week later, what I liked about what they said. But I usually don’t react at the time. I think that’s probably a fault of mind, where I probably need to say, “I heard what you just said. I’m going to think about that.” But I don’t. I just sort of … But everyone has input. My bartender Ashley, once again, it’s her bar. Wherever you want to take it, I’ll tell you when the bottom line starts to get pinched. But what direction do you want to take it. I’m hands off. But we can’t get crazy. We’re in Western Maine. We’re only open 3 days a week. We don’t have endless people pouring through the door. You have to really craft a solution that is also nimble.
Dr. Belisle: How did you come to be at Gould Academy in the first place? If you grew up in New York, and then you came to Maine to go to school, why choose Gould?
Woody Hughes: It’s interesting. There’s a moment in life when you’re not doing well as a kid sometimes. I found myself in that situation, where nothing was really working for me. A neighbor from down the street, it’s funny, she’s an artist, and she lives in Portland. She works in a very good restaurant in town to support her art. She went to Gould. When my time to get in a little trouble came up, it was a solution for my family, because Nancy did something very similar and moved up, and probably was introduced to art, like I was, at the Academy. It became both our lives. That’s what’s sort of unique about Gould. Almost all my adult skills, whether it’s recreation, whether it’s what I read or how I read or where my politics are, or the fact that I learned to make pottery at Gould that became my career. The Academy saved my life. I give it 2 checks. Because back when I returned when I was 45, in 2001, once again, it centered me. There’s a pottery term. It centered me and started out a new chapter in my life. It did it twice. Whether it’s Bethel, or Western Maine, or the Academy, when I speak of Gould Academy, I still use the word “we,” as if I’m involved in it. That’s what it means to me. I’m still connected to it emotionally, even though I’m 5 years out.
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Dr. Belisle: When you tell me that Gould does a lot with the arts, it makes me really happy, because I think that you don’t hear a lot about pottery, for example, in public schools. Sometimes kids who are in a public school setting, or even a private school setting if it’s not quite the right one for them, their learning doesn’t match up with the way that the teaching is occurring. It sounds like because Gould, for whatever reason, it sounds like Gould finds a way to individually reach the kids who go there.
Woody Hughes: Well, yes. I mean, Gould, especially back in my day, there was a lot of lateral movement in the day that permitted you to follow activities that interest you. When I first started teaching at Gould, I always thought what we did the best website, I’m going to give Lorenzo Baker the nod for this phrase, work with the negative spaces. The classes being a positive space. The sports being another positive space. It’s all the negative space in between these bigger programs. I honestly believe that website the most accurate statement I’ve ever heard describing Gould. Because that’s where you have the one-on-one contact with the kids. That’s when you’re on weekend duty. That’s when you take them up Mount Washington. Those are when all the things really come in. When you cruise through a dorm when you’re not on duty and you end up in a couple different conversations. Coming to the studio, I used to walk through the studio around the start of study hall, nothing more to just blow through there, but I might spend 10, 15, 20 minutes, depending. But those were the times. That’s what we’re really good at. There’s 50, 70 faculty, I think, that would probably agree with that statement. That’s what we’re good at. At the same time, Gould’s really upped the academics, and covering those bases, too. Not being in a core curriculum class, being in an adjunct class, I never felt the pressure from that. I just knew I had what I think could have been the best job there, because every kid wanted to be there. I had them for a full year. I could really have a special … I could change the pace based on their needs, where they were in their year, where they were with their academics, and I still had plenty of time to work with them in that year to get them to a place where I was satisfied with what I could get across to them.
Dr. Belisle: Out in Bethel, there actually is a sense of space. I don’t know, negative space maybe even. There’s this openness. There’s the mountain, of course. That’s there. Then there’s not just the mountain that people ski up. There’s lots of mountains and lots of … All around, there’s rivers and there’s streams, and there’s large fields, and there’s just a sense of vastness at times that I think maybe living on the coast I didn’t really experience, or haven’t really experienced. Does that also impact the way that you are living your life, or the way that you taught students when you were at Gould?
Woody Hughes: Certainly the way I live my life. I don’t need to go very many places. It seems like I go weeks and weeks without leaving Bethel. I almost say I’m on the island of Bethel. [inaudible 00:52:09] Sunday River, I’ll run up there to ski. But it’s the counter to what I used to have to do when I lived in New York, with commuting, the L.I.E., surburbia, and that. So to remove myself from all those distractions I find a huge part of my life. I have a dog I take a walk with in the woods every day, or I ski with every day. So I get out into these spaces. Not like I used to, because the inn takes up time, so I’m staying close to home. But the Nordic skiing will be at a ski center in town versus going back country. Because the work has gotten very big. So I don’t get out. But I wrote down my favorite hike is Rumford White Cap. It was on a questionnaire. I think that is a very doable hike. I send a lot of my guests up there, and they all come back raving about that space. Once again, that’s an easy hike with a 360-degree view. You’ve got the great view of the outback of Maine, going up into the Lake District. So that’s the … I rely on the space from the quality of my life in Bethel, for sure.
Dr. Belisle: You came back to Maine in 2001?
Woody Hughes: Yes.
Dr. Belisle: And you were 45. What happened?
Woody Hughes: I was teaching in New York, but I went through a divorce. I went on for a year after that, living in the house, because the studio was there, and my ex-wife moved up to Portland actually. I sent my son to Gould the year before, and then the job opened up. The pottery job opened up. There was a young woman from the South who was freezing to death up here. She lasted 3 years. The job opened up. Without thinking about it, I just said, I just agreed. I probably should have negotiated a little harder. But I know I needed a change, because I was not drifting, I was sinking back home. I needed … Once again, it was like a life jacket being thrown to me. I knew it. I didn’t think for a second. I just agreed to it. Get me out of here. I always wanted to come back to Bethel. I said it in high school. “Wouldn’t this be a hoot of a job,” or “Wouldn’t this be the coolest thing.” I remember being laughed at a little bit at 18. Now I think, eh, screw ’em. Anyway, it’s just … It turned out to be right. It really did. It was nice to give back. It’s a little bit of a cliché. But it was nice to return where you start, and you brought in your sensibilities, because you’ve been through it. I think I was strong at that, creating special relationships with the kids I was working with. I did that well for a while. I burned out. I’m not going to … It was good to leave. But when I was on, I really felt like I covered it pretty well.
Dr. Belisle: Well, we hope that you don’t burn out with this latest job at the Mill Hill Inn. I’m hoping that people come to visit you. But now I want not too many people to come to visit you. We want it to feel comfortable.
Woody Hughes: It will be, because I will turn people away with the best of them, ask them to return next weekend. I will explain to them, for all the reasons, from my sanity, to the capabilities of what we can do, to the number of guests we already have. It’s not a bottom line project. That’s nice to have that pressure off me. It doesn’t have to work every single night, financially. It can be sort of a soft trend upwards, is what I look for. I don’t crunch numbers.
Dr. Belisle: Woody, how can people find out about the Mill Hill Inn?
Woody Hughes: We have a darn good web page, I believe, millhillinn.com. I don’t print very many brochures anymore. But the webpage, I believe, is printable. I believe it can go on an iPhone. There’s a video or 2 associated with it, so you get to get visual, you get tours of the building, the rooms. You get to hear and see … I’m interviewed in a couple of these. You get to see what the flavor of the place is going to be. I think it’s important, because once again, we’re rather informal. You’ve got to make sure that people understand that when they come. I think they do, and a lot of people appreciate just being able to be this relaxed. Hopefully I bring that kind of comfort to that situation.
Dr. Belisle: Well, we appreciate you’re taking the time to come talk to us today. I know that you’re just starting your season, so things are busy. So this is really a great privilege to have you on Love Maine Radio. So thank you.
Woody Hughes: Very good. I appreciate this, too.
Dr. Belisle: We’ve been speaking with Woody Hughes, who is the owner of the Mill Hill Inn in Bethel, and also an acclaimed potter. Keep enjoying what you’re doing, and keep doing a great job with it.
Woody Hughes: I’ll stay the course.
Dr. Belisle: You’ve been listening to Love Maine Radio, show #176, Bethel. Our guests have included Matt Ruby and Woody Hughes. For more information on our guests and extended interviews, visit lovemaineradio.com. Love Maine Radio is downloadable for free on iTunes. For a preview of each week’s show, sign up for our e-newsletter, and like our Love Maine Radio Facebook page. Follow me on Twitter and see my running travel, food, and wellness photos, as Bountiful1 on Instagram. We love to hear from you, so please let us know what you think of Love Maine Radio. We welcome your suggestions for future shows. Also, let our sponsors know that you’ve heard about them here. We are privileged that they enable us to bring Love Maine Radio to you each week. This is Dr. Lisa Belisle. I hope that you’ve enjoyed our Bethel show. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your day. May you have a bountiful life.