BATH — In June 2015, about two weeks before the city’s biggest annual event, 23-year-old Jake Korb became director of the Main Street Bath organization.

Now with three successful Bath Heritage Days celebrations under his belt, Korb is returning to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His final day with MSB is Friday, Sept. 15.

The next day, he will steer his truck 700 miles south to Pittsburgh, where he attended college before becoming a development associate at The Neighborhood Academy, a Pittsburgh-based independent college preparatory high school serving at-risk youth. He will now serve as manager of donor relations for the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust.

Korb has family connections in western Pennsylvania, and the new job provides “a big opportunity with this organization,” he said in an interview Tuesday, a few days after returning from a trip to Barcelona, Spain.

The position he leaves has taken him down many educational avenues, too.

“The Main Street job is a little bit of everything,” Korb said. “It was a great opportunity to develop a better sense of management, and a better sense of leadership, while I learned a little bit about every aspect of a nonprofit. It was a great opportunity to further develop my understanding of how these amazing organizations work.”

Along with honing his skills, the position made him better realize what aspects of it he liked the best – in this case, fundraising.

“There’s no doubt I’ll miss the (Bath) people most,” Korb said. “I’ve built such strong relationships and friendships here. The people of downtown Bath have become like a second family to me. It will not be easy to leave all these folks behind.”

But this isn’t goodbye. His aunt and uncle, Mark and Amy Hranicky, moved to Bath more than a decade ago to open the Benjamin F. Packard House Bed & Breakfast, and Korb made an annual visit to Maine in the 10 years before he took the MSB reins.

“That’s not going to change anytime soon,” he said.

Mari Eosco, a former MSB director, a current member of the board, and chairwoman of the Bath City Council, will serve as interim director until a permanent replacement can be found. The board in the meantime will begin a three-year strategic planning process, aided by Craig Freshley of Brunswick-based Good Group Decisions.

“They’re going to facilitate a process to lay out a good framework for the future of the organization … and set some goals,” Korb said.

It’s important, he added, “to get that plan in place, and make sure that the next candidate for this position is someone who fits those goals, and is someone who can work with the board to achieve them.”

Alex Lear can be reached at 781-3661 ext. 113 or alear@theforecaster.net. Follow him on Twitter: @learics.

After more than two years with Main Street Bath, Director Jake Korb is heading to Pennsylvania to manage donor relations for the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust.