SOUTH PARIS — Forest E. Perkins, 74, beloved organist and teacher, died peacefully Jan. 6, at Market Square Health Care Center after a long illness.

He was born in South Paris, in 1937, the son of Lawrence and Georgia Perkins. Forest moved to Hebron at an early age, where his first experiences with music came from pump organs in family parlors. He was educated at Hebron Academy and at Gordon College, where he majored in organ studies.

Forest then worked for the Electronic Organ Co. in Portland, demonstrating the brands and assisting with installations, as well as serving as organist and choirmaster for several area churches. Forest joined the Hebron Academy faculty in 1982 to teach music, and he became chairman of the Academy’s Fine Arts Department in 1986.

He created a music curriculum that included Introduction to music, music theory, classic jazz and advanced topics in music and studies in harmony and counterpoint for aspiring musicians. He continued as organist for area churches, more recently at Christ Episcopal Church, Norway; Court Street Baptist Church in Auburn; and First Universalist Church in South Paris.

He was a member of the Organ Historical Society, listed in the Guide to North American Organ Builders and was called upon occasionally to repair or “voice” organs. He kept a collection of organs at home for work and pleasure and, in recent years, had become a student of heirloom apples, planting and preserving samples of traditional varieties.

Forest is survived by his sister, Georgine Perkins Brandon and her husband, Harold, of Waycross, Ga.; their children, Dale, Dean, Daniel and Pamela; five grandnieces; three grandnephews; one great-grandniece; together with cousins, Dale Polland of South Paris and David Field of Stockton Springs.

Online condolences may be shared with his family at www.chandlerfunerals.com.