After graduating from the University of Vermont with majors in English and Anthropology, Bill Bayreuther supervised archaeological field and laboratory research at his alma mater.  He completed graduate coursework in nautical archaeology at Texas A&M University and was named a Graduate Research Fellow at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History.  Following archaeological research on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century ships, boats, and harbor facilities in northeastern North America, Bill was Curator and Library Director of the USS Constitution Museum in Boston, Massachusetts, and the Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport, Maine, serving the latter also as Interim Executive Director.

As Executive Director of the Spring Point Museum in South Portland, Maine, Bill professionalized a formerly volunteer-run organization created by three groups with diverse interests.  He wrote the proposal that won sponsorship of the first Sally Kress Tompkins Maritime Internship awarded by the Historic American Engineering Record and the Council of American Maritime Museums, for documentation of the lines and construction of the bow of Snow Squall, the world’s only surviving example of an American-built clipper ship, before he turned to full-time nonprofit development.

Bill worked as a grant writer for the Natural Resources Council of Maine for eleven years, the last six of them as its Grants Director.  At NRCM, he was the lead grant writer for the internationally acclaimed project now known as the Penobscot River Restoration Trust, the Kennebec Coalition’s effort that removed the Edwards Dam and restored sea-run fish habitat in the Kennebec River, and advocacy for forestland conservation in Maine.  In two years as Development Director of the Downeast Lakes Land Trust in Grand Lake Stream, Maine, he coordinated the successful $3.2 million Wabassus Lake Project capital campaign that added 6,628 acres to the Farm Cove Community Forest, and he managed DLLT’s public outreach and other external communications.

Bill’s professional activities have included, among others, service to the Maine Arts Commission (Museum Advisory Panel Chair), the Maine Association of Museums (founding Treasurer and Executive Committee Member, Governance and Nominating Committees Chair), the American Association of Museums (Professional Practices Subcommittee), the Institute of Museum Services (General Operating Support Proposal Field Reviewer), the Council of American Maritime Museums (Institutional Delegate, Bylaws and Computer Committees), and the Vermont Archaeological Society (Board President, Nominations Chair, Newsletter Editor).  He currently serves on the Association of Fundraising Professionals Northern New England Chapter's 2013 Conference Committee and its Education Tracks Subcommittee.

Bill is a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals and the Council on Fundraising.  He is a Consulting Associate Member of the Maine Philanthropy Center, a Professional Partner of the Land Trust Alliance, and a Supporter Friend of (and frequent SkillBuilder trainer for) the Maine Association of Nonprofits.  He is licensed by the State of Maine and registered by the State of New Hampshire as Professional Fundraising Counsel.

Bill chairs the Budget Committee for the Town of Readfield, Maine, where he lives with his wife Gari Smith-Bayreuther, a Registered Nurse, and their children Russ and Addie.  He is an avid fly tier, fisherman, and hunter, and an active volunteer in his community.