Win Lockwood
In the late 1950s, my mother’s parents acquired a “camp” on Lake Placid, and in the early ’60s they built a new house on property they acquired from Henry Uillein at the end of Bear Cub Road outside of town. As a result, my parents took over our lake property, and we spent most of our summers there. By the mid-’60s, they had winterized the lake house, and we would spend long weekends and winter holidays there, skiing at Mt. Whitney and Whiteface.
I attended Albany Academy (sixth through tenth grade) and became interested in ski racing around that time. I would see the Northwood Ski Team at various races in upstate New York and New England. Northwood would show up in their dark blue and yellow Roffe jackets and striped ski pants along with their legendary coach, Warren Witherell, and they dominated the race results during an era when there were no ski academies. For elite high school racers, Northwood was “the place to go.” I found a photo of one of the teams and passed it on to the alumni department to display in the area outside the dining hall. The team members are in a tuck position on a knoll at Whiteface. Warren’s teams included racers of great note including Ni Orsi, Rebel Ryan, Phil Cole, Mike Raymaley and others.
One humorous story that I remember from that era involves a seamstress from Lake Placid. Her husband was English and a local minister, and they had a walk-up apartment on Main Street across from the Marcy hotel. She was the go-to adjuster for Northwood ski pants since stretch pants were evolving and the racers did not want any “drag” from loose pants. Ni Orsi, a real character and later a member of the US Ski Team, was a Northwood student at the time. He did not like the cut of the team’s pants, so he ordered a pair of canary yellow Bogner ski pants (no center zipper but side zips) from what was later known as Ruthie’s Run on Main Street. The seamstress pinned those to the exact contour of Ni’s legs. Ni had told her to be VERY careful in and around the crotch. Ni soon showed up at a big race, and as the clock was counting down (10,9,8,7…), he was standing away from the starting gate talking to Ted Wells and Warren about his grade in English. The starter’s count reached four … prompting Ni to skate through the starting gate on the way to winning the race by a huge margin. However, on the slopes, one of the ladies’ side zippers on his women’s canary yellow custom tailored stretch pants blew apart. At the bottom of the mountain, Warren asked Ni what happened to his pants. Ni responded, “Nothing really … those are the side vents that keep me cool when I am running hot.”
Speaking of Warren, he was a remarkable athlete himself – not only the world water skiing champion in all three events but also the first to jump over 100 feet. At Albany Academy he was an all-state athlete in multiple sports. His father taught at Northwood, as did Warren after his illustrious career at Amherst College. He had never snow skied before arriving at Northwood, but within three years he was an A-rated senior ski racer. A remarkable teacher, coach and man.
Others at Northwood had a huge impact on me. Ted Wells was a wonderful headmaster, who, like his successor, was a students’ head. He was enthusiastic about the school and its students even as certain bad actors let him down. My brother Todd and I entered Northwood in the fall of ‘65. Todd’s freshman roommate was a future board chair – Brad Olch. I was one of the first residents of the “New Dorm,” now” Bergamini.” A couple of my hallmates were Tom Mellor and Tim McAdam, renowned high school and college hockey players. Tom and Tim used the men’s large shower room as a steam room to curve and block their hockey stick blades, which made for close quarters when we took showers because they had 20 -30 sticks lined up. Years later, Tim was a guest shooting coach for my son Charlie’s Squirt and Peewee youth hockey teams in Vail.
In my senior year, my dad was instrumental in the appointment of John Friedlander as the new headmaster. That choice was prescient since his longevity was unprecedented. He was a real students’ headmaster; his office was always open and inviting to every student. He had been a great football lineman and tennis player at Bowdoin and held an annual forty-yard sprint competition against our best athletes and beat them all.
During my senior year, several of my classmates and I ran an early morning donut sale program through a bakery in Plattsburgh, eventually making a gift of a few thousand of the profits to the school. It had become quite the enterprise.
Over the 61 years of my connection with Northwood, I have witnessed a unique educational institution both survive and thrive through endless setbacks and challenges by offering special opportunities. Its path has been circuitous, but by its steady, long-term leadership and favorable guidance and some fortuitous luck, it has endured.
In my era, the tradition of “all things under one umbrella’’—the academic curriculum, the competitive sports, and the access to and benefits of the mountains and Lake Placid were unduplicated elsewhere. The school and Lake Placid have a unique history, culture and atmosphere. My memories of the student and faculty camaraderie were a particularly beneficial component of my experience. My mentorship from so many was special, important, and much appreciated.
