The former vice president of a Rochester, N.Y., science museum will start today as the director of the 25-year-old Baltimore Museum of Industry.

Paul Cypher, 36, beat out more than 85 other applicants from a search performed by Baltimore-based Maryland Association of Nonprofit Organizations, Museum of Industry spokeswoman Claire Mullins said. His salary was undisclosed.

Cypher, who had worked for the Rochester Museum and Science Center since 1997, previously oversaw fund raising for that city's Seneca Park Zoo Society. It was his fund-raising background, as well as his gregarious personality, that impressed the search committee, according to Mullins.

"A museum that's mostly geared toward children really needs someone friendly at the helm," she said.

The museum on Key Highway tracks the history of labor, unions and the industries that employed many city residents, such as garment-making, printing, can-making and metal working. It's also known for the 89-foot historic tugboat, Steamtug Baltimore, parked at its pier.

"What I think we have the opportunity to do," Cypher said, "is to tell more of the stories of the people who worked in the region."

Cypher replaces William H. Cole III at the museum's helm. Cole, a longtime museum board member, took over the executive director post on a short-term basis in 1999.

The new job also has brought the 1984 North Hagerstown High School graduate back to Maryland.

Cypher earned his undergraduate degree from Villanova University and a master's degree in communication and leadership from Seton Hall University.