Billy Watterson

“Distilling Local Legacy”

In Bluffton, South Carolina, there’s a distillery that is as much about place as about proof. Burnt Church Distillery, founded by brothers Billy J. Watterson and Sean Watterson, is a project as linked to the past as it is ambitious for the future. It is a story of entrepreneurship, curiosity, and giving back. Billy is commonly the visionary founder, brand architect, and social entrepreneur of Burnt Church Distillery. He has built and guided over 20 businesses in the past two decades. Before founding the distillery, Billy’s path took him through various industries, including disaster remediation, recycling, organic farming, and home furnishings, all under the umbrella of Watterson Brands, a kind of incubator of ideas.

Billy graduated in 1996 from the University of Findlay in northwest Ohio with a degree in environmental and hazardous materials management. Early in his career, he worked for Sears & Roebuck in Chicago as an environmental manager, handling regulatory and complex operations. But over time, he felt a growing mismatch between what he was doing and what filled him, both personally and spiritually. He longed for more rootedness, for work infused with place, history, and impact.

The turning point came when Billy discovered the Lowcountry in 2002. He was captivated by its beauty, its hospitality, and its traditions. Later, vacation visits with his family drew him deeper into the landscape, not just as a visitor, but as someone who might put down roots. Over time, the Lowcountry called him toward a different kind of venture: not just business, but legacy. The idea of a distillery crystallized during a period of reflection and retooling. He convinced his brother Sean to join him, and together they began exploring how a distillery could both create products and tell stories.

Burnt Church Distillery is the fruit of that vision. From its physical building, a roughly $13 million facility in Bluffton, to its mission, the founders have aimed for something more than just making spirits. Billy and Sean see the distillery as a way to bring Lowcountry history to life, to give back to the community, and to honor local culture.

If Billy is often described as the “brains,” Sean Watterson is described in many of the same sources as the “hands,” the craftsman, the tinkerer, the man who balances art and science. He is “self-taught,” “jack-of-all-trades,” and deeply involved in distillation, recipe development, flavor experiments, operations, and creative development. For example, Watterson Labs, a sub-series of the distillery’s offerings, is described as Sean’s playground of experimentation, providing ideas about new flavors, new formulas, and creating small-batch specialty spirits.