Many of us may know Bill Jenks as a friend, neighbor, or member and past Music Director at First Parish Church. Maybe you know him from the Gorham Business and Civic Exchange or as the owner of Home Instead, a home care business on lower Main Street. You might recognize his byline. Bill has contributed articles to this newspaper about issues of importance to older adults and their families.

Bill is also known across the State as the President of the Board for the Maine Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association. He is a staunch supporter of the Association which coordinates fundraising for Alzheimer’s research, provides educational resources, support and community engagement programs for those diagnosed with dementia, and support groups for caregivers.

Whether a family is seeking help and resources for an elderly parent who wants to remain in their own home, or a family or individual needs advice about Alzheimer’s, Bill is kind, knowledgeable, and always willing to help.

What many in our community might not know is that all of Bill’s wonderful work over the last 20 years in Maine was preceded by an equally impressive career as a professional cellist and a symphony orchestra conductor.

Bill began playing cello in 4th grade in his hometown of Batavia, NY. As he progressed, he realized that while he loved playing in the orchestra, he was much more interested in conducting it. “When you are the conductor, the orchestra is your instrument,” he said. This dream would later set up the first of several life-changing visits to Maine.

After attending a liberal arts college in Pennsylvania, majoring in Music History, Bill earned a Master’s degree at Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied cello and conducting.

In 1975, Bill became the Assistant Principal Cellist of the Oklahoma Symphony Orchestra, filling in occasionally as conductor of the orchestra, and confirming his desire to conduct full-time.

As it happens, one of the premier summer programs for conductors and orchestral musicians is the Monteux School in Hancock, Maine. The school was founded during the 1940’s by Pierre Monteux, a world famous French conductor and his wife Doris Hodgkins, an opera singer from Hancock.

Bill attended the school for three consecutive summers, along with students from all over the globe. While honing his conducting skills, Bill also fell in love with Maine. He remembers thinking, “Someday I’ll live here.”

Bill decided to form his own orchestra as a way to gain more real-world conducting experience. After attending an orchestra management workshop in New York City, he created a nonprofit corporation, recruited a Board of Directors and launched the fully professional Chamber Orchestra of Oklahoma City. The orchestra had eight successful seasons under his leadership.

In 1984, Bill won the audition to become the Associate Conductor of the Omaha Symphony Orchestra. In Omaha, Bill also became Music Director and Conductor of Ballet Omaha and of the orchestra at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

Bill’s career was headed in a great direction, but life can often throw a curveball when least expected. In 1993, he was diagnosed with MS which began to cause balance problems when he was conducting. He had to make the painful decision to give up his life’s work. “You have to be open to change and make the best of things,” he said.

Bill became the musical director of KVNO-FM, the Classical Music Public Radio station in Omaha, later serving as the Program Director.

When Bill’s wife finished medical school and was happily matched at Maine Med for her residency (she had spent great summers in Maine studying at the Salzedo Harp Colony in Camden), the family moved to Gorham in 2000. Bill was then inspired to open a Home Instead franchise, allowing him to provide the kind of help he wished had been available to his father.

Bill takes enormous care in helping clients determine the appropriate care levels they might need with activities of daily living such as bathing, dressing, housekeeping, cooking meals, or transportation; services that can allow older adults to stay safely and happily in their home as they age. Bill said, “I have wonderful clients, an amazing administrative staff and great love and respect for the caregivers who make our mission possible.”

Bill lives in the Robie neighborhood in Gorham. He has three children, daughter Eliza, who lives in Massachusetts and sons Elliot in Colorado and Dexter in L.A. He is the proud grandfather of two young grandchildren.