PV community mourns the death of Mark Fitzgerald

Mark C. Fitzgerald, a major force in developing renewable energy certification standards and a well-known figure in the PV community, died on June 16 after a long struggle against cancer. 

© Bildungszentrum für Solartechnik (BZS) Mark Fitzgerald: Well-known and respected in PV circles, Fitzgerald passed away on June 16.

As executive director of the Colorado-based, non-profit Institute for Sustainable Power Inc., he helped develop and implement global training accreditation in 12 countries.
In the 1980s, Fitzgerald founded PV International magazine (no connection to PHOTON International) and served as executive director of the PV Information and Education Association. Over the years, he worked for several solar energy companies and government agencies, including the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
Fitzgerald was the US representative to the International Energy Agency's Photovoltaic Power Systems Task 9 Expert Working Group on Photovoltaics in Developing Countries. He also served on the advisory board of the American Solar Energy Society's Solar Today magazine and authored more than 25 articles for both technical and popular publications.
One of Fitzgerald's hobbies was compiling hundreds of hours of interviews of solar pioneers on video. This footage will be presented in August at the 2005 Solar World Congress in Orlando, Florida. According to friends, at Fitzgerald's wish, he was buried wearing a solar tie. 

William P. Hirshman
© PHOTON International, July 2005