After a 60-year career working for the House of Representatives, Clerk Steven James plans to make the 193rd General Court his last.

James will retire at the end of the current session on Dec. 31, he told the News Service. He is on deck to formally announce his plans in the House Chamber on Dec. 16 after departing representatives have given their farewell speeches, the speaker’s office said.

“It’s been a great ride, but it’s time. I’ve been thrilled, honored, and it’s just been the dream of my life to work here,” he told the News Service in an interview.

James departs as the second-longest-serving clerk in House history. He came to Beacon Hill in 1964 to work as a House page during the 163rd General Court, and never left.

Appointed as second assistant clerk of the House in 1983 under Clerk Robert MacQueen, James took the top job when MacQueen retired in 1999. For the past 26 years, he has announced the business before the House, served as the branch’s chief parliamentarian, and educated State House newbies about how the process works.

“I think about what we’ve done — I haven’t done it, I’ve just been here as a clerk — but what the Legislature has done,” he said. “When I was a kid, I’m 78 now, the waters were dirty. The Boston Harbor was filthy. The rivers were dirty, the air was polluted. How’d [the cleanup] happen? It wasn’t magic. It’s the laws that they pass. It’s the good that they do.”

James recalled his first two days as a page in the capitol building and how it cemented his future.

On his first day, May 11, 1964, the House was busy debating an order to remove Speaker John “Iron Duke” Thompson from power following bribery allegations.

“Very exciting. Here I am 17 years old, and I was surrounded by these brilliant people making articulate arguments, pro and con,” James said. (Thompson retained the speakership on a 115-101 vote, though he never presided over another session.)

The following day, James was already witnessing his first joint session as the two branches elected one of their own, Rep. Robert Crane, to fill the vacant position of state treasurer. James watched the center doors open and the ceremonial procession of the sergeant-at-arms and senators.

“And that’s when I decided I would just stick around here,” James said. “Why would I go anyplace else?”

The exception was three years as a submariner in the U.S. Navy from 1966 to 1969. After his return from military service, James was approached by Clement Walsh, a member of the clerk’s staff, who asked if he knew how to type. He walked down to the clerk’s office (then in Room 358) and interviewed with Clerk Wallace Mills, who hired James to work as a data processing clerk updating bill histories on a computer terminal.

There have been highs and lows.

There was one of his first bosses, a young representative from Brookline. James was assigned as a page to Room 27, where several committee chairs had office space including Rep. Michael Dukakis, the chair of Public Service. The future governor asked James if he would like to help with committee and constituency work, and James said he “jumped” at the chance to “learn from someone who was so brilliant.”

“The worst of the sessions that I’ve ever been through,” James recalled, was July of 1980. As the House worked toward its last genuine prorogation, it met for more than 80 hours in the final week leading up to adjournment on Saturday, July 5.

It was on Friday of that week that Clerk Mills broke down and had to be taken to Mass. General Hospital after so many hours in the chamber working on his feet without sleep. James had been jogging the hallways to stay awake, and with his running shoes still on his feet, he went up to the House Chamber to fill in as second assistant clerk for the next 24 hours.

James, who lives in Swampscott, considered retirement for the past three terms, he told the News Service. This year he felt it was time to depart the job, which can be particularly demanding during the occasional late-night sessions.

House Speaker Ronald Mariano’s office said the next clerk of the House will be elected at the inaugural session on Jan. 1. (The clerkship is a position voted on by the members of the House.) Timothy Carroll of Hull has served for several years as James’ top deputy.

“Traditionally, the assistant clerk has become the clerk after the clerk leaves office. So I’m hoping that in the wisdom of the House of Representatives, they will continue that longstanding tradition,” James said.

Typical of James, an erudite parliamentary historian, he cited a precedent: “The last time that they didn’t was 1896, and it was a disaster.”

In retirement, James hopes to teach about the legislative process, perhaps in civics classes around the state. He also hopes to return to snowboarding and bicycling as he is able. The clerk usually sets ambitious annual mileage goals for himself and in 2020 he bicycled a total of 2,402 miles.

And he is working on a book about the life and times of past House clerks.

Visitors to his office can learn about some of that history if James takes them on a tour of the portraits on the mantlepiece. Lined up in a row are the faces of as many past clerks as James can find pictures of, and he knows their stories — from Samuel Adams (yes, that Samuel Adams) who served eight years as House clerk before the Revolution, to Charles Taylor, a Civil War veteran and longtime publisher of the Boston Globe.

James will join them in the annals of the Legislature as the second-longest-serving House clerk, his 26 years surpassed only by Clerk James Kimball, who served 31 years from 1897 to 1928.