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I remember the day so clearly. We were gathered together and brainstorming SEI’s vision statement, and Ed Marston said, “What about ‘a world powered by renewable energy’?” And the room became quiet. It was perfect—visionary and simply stated.
It’s with great sorrow that I share with you that Ed Marston, long-time board president and SEI champion, died last Friday, August 31, 2018. He died of complications from West Nile. Back in April, we almost lost him to a heart attack and a multiple bypass surgery. We thought we had more time with him, but we lost this great man to a tiny mosquito.
Ed earned his PhD in solid-state physics from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1968, and was a physics professor before he and his wife, Betsy, and children Wendy, 4, and David, 2, moved to Paonia in 1974. He switched to journalism, founding two papers and becoming publisher of the weekly North Fork Times, 1975-1980, and Western Colorado Report, 1982-83, when it was folded into High Country News. He always worked with his wife, an editor who continued as his working partner. In 1983, he became publisher of High Country News, which continues to cover the West for its 35,000 subscribers who live all over the country. He held that writing and administrative post for 19 years until 2002, when he retired.
Ed was our champion and a fierce defender of the West’s birthright of public lands, of local empowerment, and disruption of any kind, including energy. Never an ideologue, he’d often talk about how he heated his home with a coal furnace with locally mined coal. Community was so incredibly important to him.
Ed joined our board in 2010 and was our board president from May 2012 through March 2017. As a student of the human condition with insatiable curiosity, he loved listening to our students share their stories and would joke how they, like him, couldn’t hold a career. After introductions, Ed would paint the 30,000-foot picture. He would weave together Topsy, the elephant that Edison electrocuted, the local marijuana industry, the decline of the nearby coal mines, electric utilities and the disruptive power of renewables. Sometimes we, the staff, would cringe—where is he going with this?—but he always brought it together in the inspirational way that only Ed could.
Ed led us through the turbulent times of 2012 when SEI almost went out of business. Ed, as a new Board President, and I, a new Executive Director, both stepped into our roles at the same time. Ed was a generous mentor with so many of us, myself included, and with our Americorps VISTAs. We would often have tea together and he challenged me to think bigger, even when we didn’t agree on the direction SEI should go. Our meetings, like his class talks, were circuitous and inspirational, but often days or months later, the gems of wisdom that he shared would find their way into my thoughts. Ed was incapable of thinking small, and had an amazing sense of humor and an easy, infectious laugh.
About a year ago, Ed asked if, when he died, if the memorial could be at SEI. We were incredibly honored that he asked. Even Ed, as wise as he was, didn’t fully understand the impact that he’s had on thousands of people, many of whom will be coming to his memorial on Friday, September 7 at 2pm. To accommodate everyone, it’ll now be at Delicious Orchards in Paonia.
To Betsy, his wife of 52 years, and David and Wendy, we send our love. We are incredibly fond of Ed, and grieve his death.
Ed, we miss you…
Kathryn Swartz, Executive Director
Solar Energy International (SEI)
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