SOLAR TODAY - May 2009

inside ases

| american solar energy society news

ASES Remembers Two Longtime Members

ASES lost two valuable members recently, Maurice Albertson and Greg Franta.

Maurice Albertson, a Colorado State University researcher, Peace Corps founder and longtime ASES member, died Jan. 11 at age 90. Albertson taught at CSU for more than six decades and helped develop the university’s research, graduate and international programs. Albertson was also a vocal advocate for renewable energy and an active member of the Colorado Renewable Energy Society. In 1961, he also helped found the Peace Corps. Donations in his memory can be made to his nonprofit, Village Earth ( villageearth.org), or to the Maurice Albertson Scholarship Fund at Colorado State University ( colostate.edu).

Greg Franta, senior vice president at the

Maurice Albertson

Rocky Mountain Institute in Snowmass, Colo., died in a car accident in February. He was 58.

An architect and proponent of passive solar design, Franta was at the forefront of the green building movement. He was one of the original creators of the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED standards and was a co-founder and past

chairman of the American Institute of Architects’ Committee on the Environment.

Franta’s good friend Douglas Balcomb, Ph.D., a retired research fellow at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, remembers Franta’s tireless work promoting Balcomb’s Energy- 10 computer program, a design tool that encourages architects to investigate a range of energy-efficiency strategies in a building under design.

“[Greg] had an instinctive under-

Greg Franta

standing of passive solar design principles,” Balcomb said. “His passing at the prime of his career is a tragic loss not only for his family and friends, but also for the whole community of designers working to integrate architectural delight with energy efficiency.”