RUMFORD – When Phil Merrill locks up his classroom and lab at the end of the school year, he will end a 39-year teaching career.

“It’s been a good gig,” said the 61-year-old teacher of industrial arts, technology and drafting at Mountain Valley High School.

Merrill, who grew up on a farm in Dexter and lives in West Paris, began his career in the Guilford district where he taught for seven years before coming to the SAD 43 area.

His wife, Terry, an elementary teacher at the Agnes Gray School in West Paris, will also retire at the end of the school year.

“We want the freedom to travel,” he said.

Ironically, Merrill is ending his career where his grandfather, Clement Downs, began his as a manual training teacher before he was drafted into World War I.

Over the years, Merrill has seen huge changes in technology. Almost everything is now computerized.

But he has seen little difference in the students.

“They are still kids. They still have growing issues. They have to have their cell phones and computers, but they’re still the same,” he said.

Also, now both boys and girls take his courses. When he started, industrial arts was just for boys.

In the early 1980s, he said he and the then new home economics teacher decided to mix things up.

Now, girls take drafting, woodworking and other skills

In past years, he has also taught ceramics and metal working.

With retirement about to start, he plans to remodel his home and perhaps do some landscaping. He also wants to volunteer for weatherization programs, and he may do some substitute teaching.

Family plays a major role in his life, so he expects there will be more family gatherings at the pool he and his wife have. Solid plans for the future have not been finalized.

One thing’s for certain, though. He made the right career choice.

“I enjoy working with the kids. No two days are ever alike, and the technology is always challenging,” he said. “It’s satisfying to see the growth of the kids from freshman to senior. Every once in a while, a kid will go into architecture and send an e-mail with some of their work attached.”

He and Terry’s two children, Andrew and Amy, said they’d never go into teaching. But it didn’t quite work out that way.

Amy is a teacher at Oxford Elementary School and Andrew teaches at Region 11 vocational school.

The Merrills also have three grandchildren.

When Merrill leaves his position, no full-time teacher will take his place. Instead, the district has decided to assign his classes to qualified instructors within the system.

A farewell gathering for retirees takes place at Black Mountain on May 1.