Following a little more than one year in the position, James Myall stepped down last Friday as executive director of the Freeport Historical Society.

Myall will become a policy analyst at the Maine Center for Economic Policy, a think tank in Augusta, on Dec. 7. Myall said that, with a young family, he didn’t have the time necessary for the job at the Freeport Historical Society.

“I had the growing realization that more time and energy were needed to fulfill the needs of the organization properly,” said Myall, who took the historical society job in September 2014.

He succeeded Christina White, executive director since 2008.

Myall, 29, said he is about to receive his master’s in public policy management from the University of Southern Maine. A native of England, he holds a master’s degree in ancient history and archeology from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, and also has a graduate certificate in nonprofit management from USM. Myall said that his experience with the historical society, combined with his education, should serve him well with the Maine Center for Economic Policy.

“I’ve always been fascinated by the light history can shed on current affairs and events,” he said.

Andrea Martin, president of the historical society board of trustees, said that the board will find an interim executive director, they hope by the end of the year.

“Then we will start the process of finding a full-time executive director,” Martin said. “That search can take five or six months. The last time, we had applications from all over the country. It’s a unique field. You’re looking to fill a specific niche.”

Martin said she learned of Myall’s decision a month or so ago.

“James has done a great job for us and it’s been a pleasure working for him,” she said. “He gave us great leadership. We’re sad to see him go, but we’ll keep moving forward.”

The job of executive director at the Freeport Historical Society often requires that person to be working outside a 9-to-5 schedule, Martin said.

“You do what you need to do,” she said. “When you have all these programs and meetings, it’s outside normal hours.”

The Freeport Historical Society’s Harrington House at 45 Main St., built in 1830 by Freeport merchant Enoch Harrington, is its base of operations. It also owns the 140-acre Pettengill Farm, a 19th-century former saltwater farm located on an estuary of the Harraseeket River.

The historical society will continue with its exhibit on Freeport’s shoemaking industry, “Cobblers to Capitalists,” into mid-January. But no big events are planned for the remainder of the year, and the exhibit for next year doesn’t begin until May.

“I came in knowing it was an organization that has a lot of potential and room for growth,” Myall said. “The challenge is the best way to use its assets. It has a great board of trustees.”

His most lasting memory of the Freeport Historical Society, Myall said, will be Pettengill Farm.

“I plan to return, just as an ordinary visitor,” said Myall, who lives in Topsham with his wife, Kate, and their two young children.