RUMFORD — Ron LaBerge has always loved American history, going to school and working with people. So teaching seemed the perfect career to follow, he said.

When school ends for the year next month, he also will end his 36-year teaching career, with 32 of them at Mountain Valley High School.

LaBerge, whose second-floor classroom is always decorated with educational and eye-catching history displays, grew up in Sabattus and graduated from Monmouth Academy, then from the University of Maine at Farmington with a B.S. in secondary education in history.

“I like being in the classroom. I’m social and enjoy interacting with people. Where else could I deal with people and history every day? I’ve been absolutely happy with my career,” he said.

Learning American history, he believes, is critical to citizenship.

“Its study gives us a perspective on the issues of today, why people are as they are. With a grasp of history, people can make better decisions, and know where people are coming from,” especially when voting, he said.

LaBerge is particularly proud of two awards he has received — the Maine Council of Social Studies Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009, and being named a Gilder-Lehrman Institute of History fellow in 2010. That award provided a summer of Civil War study at the University of Virginia. He has also been elected to five consecutive terms as president of the Maine Council for the Social Studies.

LaBerge plans to return to his family’s homestead in Sabattus after retirement and begin work on family genealogy, which he said he never had time to pursue while teaching.

He also hopes to continue his pursuit of American history by taking trips to such historic places as Little Big Horn, the Alamo, and the Civil War battlefield at Antietam. Those trips will include his three nephews, who are also history enthusiasts.

In previous years, he had led independent study classes to Gettysburg and Washington, D.C., directed senior plays and started an outing club, as well as enjoying school sporting events.

One of the things he’ll miss most are the annual digs to students about their enthusiasm about the Patriots and the Boston Red Sox during the Super Bowl and World Series. He’s a N.Y. Giants and N.Y. Yankees fan.

He plans to continue his support of the Academic Decathlon Team. He sits on the executive committee of the Maine Academic Decathlon organization.

Every now and then, a former student will tell him that in their travels, they came across a historical monument or other artifact that they recognized, thanks to his classes.

Besides traveling and digging into genealogy, he plans to continue working in the background for political candidates and devote “weeks, months, and years” to restoring the family homestead.