The title industry lost an important pioneer with the passing of Bayard Waterbury. Bayard was the fifth president of the Maryland Land Title Association, serving in the 1980s and 90s as an officer, director, and for many years, a tireless leader of the MLTA Education Committee while he built up his company, “Montgomery Abstracts” , one of the largest title abstracting companies ever serving Montgomery, Prince George’s, and Frederick counties. He trained several generations of title searchers, and authored The Maryland Title Searchers’ Handbook, one of the only published works on the process of examining real estate titles at the time.

He was an active member of the American Land Title Association, serving on the Board of Governors of ALTA, and assisting the ALTA Education Committee on early development of videos and workbooks for educating members on title abstracting and examination. Prior to his retirement, Bayard worked as a Commercial Title Officer for one of the major underwriters in the Atlanta, Georgia area.

A US Navy veteran submariner, Bayard was an enthusiastic tennis player, whitewater rafter, fabulous cook, and host of some infamous pig roasts and holiday parties. He was a prolific writer of essays, articles on politics, economics, and government, as well as works of poetry. A BIG man, with a BIG heart and a friend to many. Bayard will be missed.