Jack Stone is dead

His highest level of popularity Jack Stone gained was through the newsletter NCPV Hotline of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).  
 

© NERL Jack Stone

In daily morning and evening editions, the NREL employee informed the PV world with all he could find about the technology on the web – and he did an excellent job. Quickly he became the synonym for this free service. »Have you read it at Jack Stone,« one could often hear in the conference floors, when his daily info was the only way to get a quick global roundup of press releases from and news articles about PV companies.

But his PV merits extended much further than that newsletter. Stone, an electrical engineer who received his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in 1969, started his PV career in the early days of NREL in 1978. There, at the world's leading PV research lab, he served in several management positions - from director of NREL's solar electric research division, to technical director for PV, and project leader for international market and applications development. In 2001, he was honored with NREL's prestigious 4th Paul Rappaport Award »for his longtime, outstanding contributions and extraordinary dedication to photovoltaic science and technology.« (A summary of his visionary award speech was published in PI 11/2001, p. 41).

After a heart attack on April 29, Stone lost consciousness and never awoke. He passed away on May 9, 2003. He was 61 years old. 

Michael Schmela
© PHOTON International, July 2003