When Roger Whitney was a child playing trombone in an American Legion band in Augusta with his father, he knew even then that he wanted to teach music. He always knew.

At 63, the Alna man has taught band and music for 34 years, all of them in Wiscasset schools. Some of his more recent students are the children and grandchildren of earlier ones.

Whitney retires Oct. 30.  The Wiscasset School Committee was set to take up his resignation Oct. 29. 

“Everything has an end, and every end is a beginning,” Whitney said Friday, at an electric piano in a band room at Wiscasset Middle High School. He played part of a piece called “Goodbye,” that he wrote for his friends in the school system.

He hadn’t played it for them yet, but he would, he said.

Asked about his lifelong love for music and for teaching it, Whitney said both his mother Florice Whitney and his tuba-playing father Lewis Whitney were extremely supportive. His mother didn’t play an instrument, but encouraged his interest in playing.

“Maybe it was that she knew it was my destiny,” he said.

Music and all the arts are important, in part because they use different parts of the brain than other activities do, Whitney said.

“The arts are an essential part of the education of a child. Without (them), it’s not a complete education.”

It was just time to move on and time for a change, the Manchester-raised Whitney said about wrapping up his Wiscasset career. “It’s been a huge part of my life, very rewarding (and) a real pleasure to get to know all the people,” he added.

The school system will miss Whitney’s commitment to the art of music and learning, Superintendent of Schools Heather Wilmot writes in an Oct. 22 email response to the Wiscasset Newspaper. She looks forward to honoring Whitney’s commitment, Wilmot adds. “I wish him well as he embarks upon retirement and a new chapter in his life.”

Whitney has a part-time job lined up and plans to keep living in Alna, where he directs the town’s emergency management and serves as assistant fire chief. He’ll continue to serve in both of those roles he has held for years.

Whitney still plays trombone. In September, he performed with Opus One Big Band at Wiscasset’s Marianmade Farm when it hosted a Wiscasset Public Library fundraiser.

The Wiscasset School Department has received applications for the job opening that Whitney’s retirement creates; the department is working to fill the position, Wilmot writes in an Oct. 23 email.

The School Committee meets at 6 p.m. Oct. 29 in the Wiscasset Middle High School library. The public is invited to a 5:15 p.m. meet-and-greet, also in the library, with new WMHS Principal Peg Armstrong.