BETHEL — Gould Academy’s new Head of School, Matt Ruby, said he knew he and his wife, Kathy, would be happy in Bethel after their second visit last fall.

They were driving back to the Portland airport to return to their Minnesota home when Kathy said, “How can I feel homesick for a place I’ve never lived?”

Those two visits, Ruby said last week, were enough to make them both feel the tug to return.

They got their wish when the Gould Board of Directors chose Ruby to take over for retiring Dan Kunkle.

Ruby brings a broad background to the position. He earned a bachelor of arts degree in history from Carleton College in Minnesota, where he met his wife. He went on to serve in the U.S. Navy from 1987 to 1993 as an officer, and spent the next several years working in the private sector. He earned a master’s degree in industrial relations from the University of Minnesota and worked for a time in the trucking business.

But, he said, “I’d been thinking about becoming a teacher since boyhood. After great experiences working in the Navy and the trucking business, I’d learned enough about myself to know that education was my path.”

He pursued a secondary teaching certification in social studies. He taught first in the Minnesota public schools system, before teaching and administrative roles at the private Breck School in Minneapolis from 2002 to 2007.

Ruby most recently served as associate head of school at Shattuck-St. Mary’s School in Minnesota.

This past year he decided the timing was right to become a head of school.

“I was looking for a school that was creative and forward-looking, with a talented staff,” he said. “Gould was at the top of my list.”

The time was also good to look to the east. His son is a senior at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in Connecticut, his daughter will be a freshman at Ithaca College in New York, and his wife is a New York native. “Our center of gravity was shifting east,” he said. “And I still have family in Boston.”

Ruby was born in Boston, grew up in Montana, attended high school in Houston and lived in Virginia and Pennsylvania. But he’d never been to Maine before applying at Gould.

His assessment on arrival: “Maine is like Minnesota, but with mountains and ocean. That’s better,” he said.

While he doesn’t alpine ski — yet — he jokingly claims a bit of winter sports experience. “I had to snowshoe to work a few times in Minnesota,” he said.

He has also done cross-country skiing.

The Rubys arrived in Bethel in June, but Matt had been attending board meetings and other Gould functions through the past school year, so he was well on his way to becoming acclimated.

“The school and the town have been incredibly welcoming,” he said.

Kathy’s background is in college administration, but she will not have a full-time position at the school. Still, there will be plenty to keep her busy. She plans to take part in the school’s Reach Out community service program, and generally support families and students in Bethel.

For both of them, the upcoming school year “will be about building relationships and learning about the school and the town — that’s job one,” he said.

His ultimate goal “will be to make the school the most agile and creative school around” in dealing with the changes that are happening in the field of education and in the world in general, he said. “I want to make it exciting for the students, and prepare them for whatever is coming their way.”