AUBURN – After 49 years, school’s out for Richard Osgood.

Known as “Dick” or “Ozzie,” the 73-year-old science teacher was honored Tuesday on the last day of school for Edward Little High School teachers.

Principal Jim Miller said Osgood had been a mentor to him.

“He was my baseball coach. I’ve learned an awful lot from him,” Miller said.

Fellow teacher Al Harvie said Osgood was someone he has long admired – a legend, even. “Thank you for what you’ve done for the young people here in Auburn,” Harvie said.

The retirement celebration featured a slide show of Osgood through the years: as an Edward Little skier and baseball player, as a family man, as a teacher and coach, and being inducted into the Maine Ski Hall of Fame.

English teacher Candy Gleason asked teachers to stand if they had Osgood as a teacher, or their children had him, or their parents had him. Most stood.

Gleason recalled that Osgood coached her when she was an EL student, then later as a teacher she was an assistant ski coach with him. She shared lines he often said: “‘He laughed like hell.’ ‘It snowed like hell.’ ‘He ran like hell.’ ‘Those Sox were pitching like hell.'” Her favorite was what he said when he was waiting for snow each winter: “‘I’m going to do a snow dance.'”

“So for you, Dick, we’re all going to do a snow dance,” Gleason said. Teachers threw shimmering sparkles in the air.

Osgood’s teaching days actually stopped a month ago when he was hospitalized because of a detached retina.

He graduated from EL in 1952, from the University of New Hampshire in 1957, and served in the U.S. Army from 1957 to 1958. He started teaching in 1958.

In his early teaching days, schools didn’t have calculators, he said. “We had abacuses.”

“My philosophy is, I’ve enjoyed coming in every day. If you can’t do that, you shouldn’t be in teaching.”

He urged teachers to relax when they get out of school every day, not to take their problems home. “Don’t take life too seriously. Nobody’s lived through it yet.”

Osgood decided to retire before he hit the 50-year mark because he was running out of energy. “I’m 73,” he said. “That’s a good time to stop. I’ve had a good time.”

The state doesn’t know who holds the record for teaching the longest, but 49 years is unusual, said Maine Department of Education spokesman David Connerty-Marin.

Osgood said he doesn’t hold the record. “Dick Gould taught 55 years at Mt. Blue. He was the ski coach up there when I was skiing for Edward Little.”

Osgood said he never experienced teacher burnout. He attributed that to teaching a mix of science courses, and to liking kids.

Former student Greg Begin, contacted by phone, said Osgood was the best teacher he had. “He always took time to make sure you understood everything.”

Begin graduated from EL in 2003 and from Washington County Community College.

“The stuff he taught me in high school got me through college,” Begin said. “I was a step ahead.”

Osgood said he will miss the students the most. “The majority are real good kids.”

His first priority as a retiree will be to regain the health of his eye. And then he’ll stay active. “I’m not going to sit around and do nothing. You’ll see me out walking, out skiing, baseball games.”

And he may return to Edward Little – as a substitute teacher.