After more than 30 years serving on Casper boards and councils, Casper City Council member Lynne Whalen will resign.

She and her husband will move to Jackson to retire in a family home bought in the 1980s.

Whalen will inevitably join community groups in the resort community, but no more politics, she said.

"I love the debate over public policy and trying to find the right balance for community," she said about her service on the city council.

Terms on school district committees, medical committees and the city council consume her decades in Casper. While her four children were in school, she spent most of her time on issues with the school district, but those weren't her only services.

Whalen was part of the Nicolaysen Art Museum board and helped raise funds to finance the museum. Her and her husband, Richard, a retired general surgeon, helped generate money to start the ice arena.

As executive director of the Natrona County Medical Society, Lynne helped spearhead an effort to make Casper a smoke-free community. Even though the initiative eventually failed, it started her on a path to city council.

She began serving on the city council in 2000, and was reelected in 2004.

Whalen lists the Wyoming National Bank Apartments and Monument Plaza near the Nicolaysen, as projects she is proud of Casper for developing.

Fellow council member Guy Padgett said Whalen has been a "great council woman" and a hard worker.

"She will fight for what she thinks is right," he said. "The things I really remember about Lynne most is working with her on lobbying at the state level and in Washington. She is really willing and supportive to work with government to achieve her goals and goals for the city."

Whalen is the second council member to resign this month, after council member Page Fagen announced his resignation during a meeting on July 1. Fagen will leave for Denver after his last meeting on July 15.

The city will advertise for both council positions and interview candidates near the end of July.

Contact city reporter Christine Robinson at (307) 266-0639 or christine.robinson@trib.com