George Christian Ortloff, Republican-Conservative-Independence, was born on September 20, 1947 in Lake Placid, Essex County. His family roots descend from Essex, Dutchess, Onondaga and Franklin Counties, the respective destinations of English, German and Irish ancestors. He was an Eagle Scout, student editor, athlete and salutatorian at Lake Placid High School; he earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1969, and a Master of Arts degree in Journalism and Political Science from the University of Michigan in 1975. He has also studied at the University of California at Berkeley, Solano Community College and the Defense Language Institute.
He served in the U.S. Air Force from 1970-73, including 19 months in the Republic of Vietnam, part of which was spent as Special Assistant to the U.S. Embassy's Cultural Affairs Officer and the Joint U.S. Public Affairs Office (JUSPAO).
He was Chief of Ceremonies and Awards for the XIII Olympic Winter Games at Lake Placid, a two-year project with a $2,000,000 budget and 3,000 people under his department's control. The department organized 37 ceremonies, the Olympic Torch Relay, design and production of medals, flags and music. Mr. Ortloff organized the Lake Placid unit at the 1984 Olympics Opening Ceremony in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, and served as a consultant on ceremony and international flag protocol at the 1988 Olympic Winter Games in Calgary, Canada. He has been active in other amateur sports events, as a lecturer at the International Olympic Academy in Greece, as a member of the organizing committees of the World Junior Luge Championships, the World Luge Championships and the 1985 U.S. Olympic Academy in Plattsburgh, and as a trustee of the Olympic and Winter Sports Museum. For these accomplishments, he was inducted into the Lake Placid Hall of Fame in 1998.
As a journalist, Mr. Ortloff has written two books, Lake Placid: The Olympic Years, 1932- 1980 and A Lady in the Lake. He has won four New York State Broadcasters Association awards, two Detroit Press Club Association awards, and a New York State Publishers Association award. He covered the Apollo and Skylab manned space programs for National Public Radio in the mid-seventies, and has worked in newspapers, radio and as Managing Editor of WPTZ-TV news in Plattsburgh, 1981-1985.
Mr. Ortloff was elected to the Assembly (by a vote of 15,130 to 11,988) in the special election in February of 1986. His political career began in the sixties, as Young Republican President at R.P.I. In 1977, he became the youngest Village Trustee in Lake Placid, finishing first among four candidates in a Republican primary, with 57 per cent of the vote. He was elected three times, became a county committeeman, and was appointed District Field Assistant for Congressman David O'B. Martin in 1981.
Mr. Ortloff is one of 19 commissioners on the New York State Parole Board, appointed by Gov. Pataki in June, 2006. When he resigned from the Assembly to assume his current post, he was Assistant Minority Leader. He had been a member of Ways and Means, Rules, Environmental Conservation, Transportation, Energy and Corporations, Authorities and Commissions Committees, and was on the Joint Legislative Commissions on Demographics and Reapportionment, and Science and Technology.
He lives in the City of Plattsburgh, with his wife, the former Ruth Mary Hart. They have two sons, Chris, Jr. and Jonathan. Mrs. Ortloff, a graduate of the College of William and Mary, and a former staff member of the National Wildlife Federation, serves as Caseworker for Congressman John M. McHugh.