RUMFORD – Hank Forman of Bryant Pond will serve as director of Black Mountain ski school this season.

He headed up the ski school race programs at Wildcat Mountain in New Hampshire for the last four years. He brings 18 years of ski teaching to Rumford.

Forman is a Level III ski professional, as certified by the Professional Ski Instructors of America. He began his teaching career at Yawgoo Valley in Rhode Island, a small family area that has a 150-foot vertical drop.

The 51-year-old father of Benjamin, 21, and Schuyler, 16, comes from a family that has ties to European skiing traditions. His Czechoslovakian father and uncle often skied in Tyrolia in the 1930s, using skins on the bottoms of their skis to climb up the mountains.

Forman holds a bachelor of arts degree in business administration from Western State College in Gunnison, Colo. When not at Black Mountain, he works as a builder for Steve Pelletier in Bethel.

Forman lives in Bryant Pond with his wife, Valerie.