Doug Rutan conducted his final concert at Morristown High School on Wednesday, on the prepares to retire after 34 years as a music teacher in the Morris School District.
“You guys were my oasis in my weekly desert,” the Budd Lake resident told his young musicians.
Rutan is grieving the loss of his wife, an MHS graduate, who died last year.
“It’s time to begin a new chapter of my life,” Rutan said, before leading the Symphonic Band through his finale, The Fate of the Gods, at the school’s Spring Concert.
He received a pair of standing ovations.
This year’s Symphonic Band was special, Rutan said, because it contained students he has known since their kindergarten days, through his daughter, Betsy, as well as his son, Brian, a freshman.
Senior Hannah Feldman was among the students who has known Rutan since she was a kindergartener.
“Mr Rutan has touched so many lives,” Feldman said. “I was sad [about his retirement], but I was okay with it because I knew it was best for him.”
Rutan had been slated for transfer this fall to the Frelinghuysen Middle School, when he decided to retire.
He has said he intends to remain associated with the Marching Band, as a volunteer.
