Nicholas Humber; Environmental expert
By Boston Globe Staff 9/17/2001

Nicholas Humber of Newton, an executive of Enron Wind Corp., was killed Tuesday in the crash of American Airlines Flight 11 in New York. He was 60. Born in Ludlow, Mr. Humber graduated from Ludlow High School and received a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Rochester, N.Y., where he was an accomplished football and lacrosse player. He received a master's degree from the Wharton Graduate School at the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Humber joined the EPA when it was founded in 1971 and worked in the waste division.

He was an adviser to the World Bank and evaluated many projects for fuel-cell technology. He was a founder of Energia Global, which is focused on Latin America, as well as past president of BioMed of Boston. Most recently, he directed commercial sales for Enron Wind Corp. of California. He was a member of many organizations, including the Norfolk Prison Fellowship Outreach Program.

He leaves his son, Jordan of Newton; a sister, Judy of San Anselmo, Calif.; and a brother, Jeff of Washington, D.C. A memorial service will be held tomorrow at 7 p.m. at the United Parish in Auburndale.

Editorial Obituary published in THE BOSTON GLOBE on 9/17/2001

Posted by Margaret Gatty

Wind energy pioneer gets a moving memorial
Pittsburg Post Gazette
Thursday, October 25, 2001 by Brian O Neill

SOMERSET Pa. -- These are really monuments of a sort, Jeff Humber said as we stood yesterday with hundreds of others on a windy mountaintop in Somerset County.
Workers atop a 213-foot turbine hub secure an American flag before yesterday's dedication of six new windmills at a wind farm in Somerset County. Each windmill has three 112-foot blades and will generate 1.5 megawatts of electricity. The Public Utility Commission predicts that within three years, the windmills will produce power for as many as 66,500 households. (V.W.H. Campbell Jr, Post-Gazette)
Humber was referring to six 200-foot windmills strung along the ridge that would soon wring electricity from the air. Politicians and corporate types and nearby farmers all came to celebrate the opening of this, Pennsylvania s third wind farm.
Flag-bearing children came from three elementary schools in the valley below, as did representatives of Carnegie Mellon and Penn State universities, the University of Pennsylvania, Giant Eagle and Philadelphia Suburban Water Co., all of which have agreed to buy the green juice produced by these windmills.
Humber came for his older brother, Nick. Nicholas Humber orchestrated this particular deal for Enron Wind Corp., which built the wind turbines, but he did not live to see the mills turn. A memorial to him somewhere off the Pennsylvania Turnpike, in view of the site, will read:
In memory of Nicholas Humber of Enron Wind, a kind humanitarian who cared deeply about our Earth and all people and made critical contributions to the planning and completion of the wind power projects at Somerset and Mill Run before tragically losing his life on September 11, 2001, on American Airlines Flight 11."
His was the first plane to crash into the World Trade Center. Humber, 60, was traveling to Los Angeles from his Boston home for a business meeting. He'd spent nearly all his adult life working on environmental issues, so the tribute is perfect.
"This is real," said his brother, who had flown up from Washington, D.C. "These are real turbines generating real energy for real people. At least he has something beautiful and it is doing something good for the environment."
Is it irony or coincidence that Humber's legacy stands just a few miles southwest of Shanksville, where United Flight 93 crashed? Humber's colleagues, who remember him as a mellow and generous guy, have grappled with that question and others like it.
Mike Skelly is vice president of business development for Zilkha Renewable Energy, a co-developer of the Somerset projects. Skelly points out that Humber spent the best part of his working life chipping away at America s problem of energy dependence. And how did he die?
He died when his plane was hijacked by terrorists who were financed, at least in part, by Saudi Arabian wealth. That wealth is there because of Western dependence on foreign oil. The terrorists used oil another way, too; the World Trade Center was brought down not by the planes themselves, but by the fires that raged on jet fuel.
It's important not to take that observation too far. Jeff Humber said the last thing his brother would want would be to have the actions of a small cabal stain the reputations of any ethnic group. His brother would be the guy reminding America to pull together. Jeff Humber has many friends from the Middle East who have come to him "terrified and disgusted" by the events of Sept. 11.
Nick Humber's legacy is as straightforward as the slogan that adorned the T-shirts of the singing schoolchildren on the mountaintop: "Wind is Cool." This energy source is not yet as cheap as nuclear or coal power; residential customers who choose wind power will pay 2 to 3 cents more per kilowatt-hour, according to Community Energy Inc. But they'll be getting a "home-grown energy with no fuel no smoke and no price spikes."
"There's a cool kind of vibe going on here," Skelly said. "Somehow, wind power is patriotic. Because it s our resource."
The speeches lasted more than an hour, fitting enough for a celebration of wind. Toward the end, Michael Zilkha, president of Zilkha Energy, said: "It is said the United States is the Saudi Arabia of wind."
We aren't there yet, but six more turbines began spinning yesterday. The Public Utility Commission predicts that as many as 66,500 households will be grabbing their power from the air within three years. Some of that is due to a man from Boston who left his legacy on the wind.

Posted by Margaret Gatty