[Note: There's some off-color lyrics (rated PG variety) in this video. But, it's worth a listen. If you don't care to take the 6 minutes to listen Mr. Ben Folds' work (the actual song begins one minute into the video) - you can check out the lyrics here. As always, those of you getting this via RSS-feed or e-mail will have to bring up the site to see the video]
Admittedly, I spend a lot of time criticizing the actions of certain senior citizens in our local community and cynical institutions that they run. Most older folks that I encounter in local politics serve more as a cautionary tale than an positive example. They fit the mold of the video attached to this article by “getting smaller while the world gets big”
With that, You’d think I had it in for older people.
Quite the contrary. I’ve got a lot of respect for those who are older who’ve managed to keep their ideas and idealism intact. To prove it – I’ll recognize a life that was the antithesis of the video attached to this article in today’s Friday Five.
This week, the founder of the Electric Power Research Institute (the firm I work for) – Dr. Chauncey Starr – passed away at 95. In his life, he was recognized for his contribution to science and society; and admired and respected by his peers. In his death, he was memorialized in the New York Times – among other publications. That obituary is the subject of today’s “Friday Five”. His life wound up being the opposite of the subject in the video - so, this week’s Friday Five is worth a read.
This week’s Friday Five: The top five qualities of a good obituary.
5. A major paper takes it
We can all expect to make it to our hometown papers with the vital stats; but to get published in The Old Grey Lady – that’s something else.
4. They get your name right.
An obituary and headline yesterday about the founder of the Electric Power Research Institute, who was also a leading exponent of nuclear power, misspelled his given name. He was Chauncey Starr, not Chaucey.
While this may not seem like a big deal to the Smiths of the world, if you have a funny first name like Chauncey or a hard-to-spell last name like Thibault – having the press get your name right is important. Earlier in my time in Cabarrus County I never saw it as such a big deal when my name was in the paper; but I was amazed when it got spelled right. They’ve been doing better lately - I just hope they do it right when I’m late.
3. Your “survived by” list is pretty simple
He is survived by his wife of 69 years, Doris; a daughter, Ariel Wooley of Los Altos, Calif.; a son, Ross, of San Diego; and five grandchildren.
69 years of life is respectable; but 69 years of marriage is phenomenal, I haven’t even been married 69 months and I can tell you that nobody would have stayed miserable that long. There was obviously love and commitment in the Starr; and - I don’t care who you are – you’ve got to respect that.
2. You get proven right
He was a very early exponent of the idea that society’s perception of risk was skewed. At a meeting of the National Academy of Engineering in 1969, commenting on why only 40 percent of car passengers used lap belts and hardly any used shoulder belts (which were then separate pieces of hardware), he said that people would accept risks if they thought the risks were more than balanced by convenience or other benefits. Thus, he said, people would accept “voluntary” risks, from smoking or sports, that were 1,000 times as great as the risk they would allow to be imposed on them from the generation of electricity.
Every day when I show up to work – I get to stick it to Ralph Nader. In the early 70s – following some well-publicized blackouts - Nader and other far-left liberals were pushing for the incremental nationalization of the electric utilities in the US. In Dr. Starr’s testimony to the US Senate that followed that of Mr. Nader’s, Dr. Starr proposed an alternative to Nader’s Statist solution - EPRI. EPRI (The Electric Power Research Institute), who I work for and Dr. Starr founded, is a collaborative research institute whose members now include all of the utilities in the US, many abroad, and a handful of other organizations. At the time, it was a crazy idea; and now it’s the major source of R&D in the power industry.
Of course, founding EPRI was something that Mr. Starr did when he was in his 60s. His work in Nuclear Power goes back to before the Manhattan Project. What’s extraordinary is that his ideas were always before their time. Widespread Electrification in the world, Commercial Nuclear Power, the EPRI collaborative – all of these things seemed crazy when Chauncey proposed them and now they’re commonplace. The idea of a hydrogen economy and a smart power grid doesn’t seem like a pipe dream to me in large part because Chauncey Starr thought they would be a good idea.
1. You’re recognized by the people who matter to you
A celebration to honor Mr. Starr, who turned 95 on Saturday, was held at the Electric Power Research Institute the day before he died; 200 colleagues attended.
I had the opportunity to meet Dr. Starr; but missed it. He was at the EPRI campus in Palo Alto, CA; and I spotted him talking to a group of people. I was late for a meeting and kept walking on. He was easy to spot; because he was the only one at the office who was in his 90s. He worked as our President Emeritus, and was planning to show up to work the day he died – but he took a nap that morning and didn’t wake up. As someone who works at EPRI, I can tell you that was literally missed earlier this week: At 95, he was still showing up to work. He found his passion and excelled in it - most of us won’t be that fortunate. That was his reward for a life of bucking the crowd and believing in things bigger than himself. I thought y’all could use that after this horrible week.
As a nation, there’s a palpable mixture of mourning and self-examination as we process the events at Virginia Tech. We’ve been exposed to a wide range of mini-obituaries on the news ranging from 18-year-old college freshman to a 76-year-old Holocaust-survivor professor. I think we could do worse than to take a moment to reflect on how our life would be distilled in the memory of our community.
I’ll see y’all Monday.
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