Fourteen months after Walt Ratterman’s funeral, the solar energy organization he founded is shutting down.
When the Washougal resident was reported as missing after the Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake in Haiti, his family and colleagues wanted to keep moving forward.
Engineers at Sun Energy Power International completed projects in several countries, while Ratterman’s wife, Jeanne, and their daughter, Briana, worked to keep his dream alive.
Following the anniversary of his death, his family acknowledged that nobody could replace Ratterman.
“It was an organization that really was built around one man,” Briana Ratterman said. “We’re closing it down.
“He worked so much on his own. The organization wasn’t built for longevity without him.”
Without her husband, “It isn’t the same organization,” Jeanne Ratterman said. “We’d be at a start-up level, a whole new organization.”
Sun Energy Power International developed renewable energy projects in remote, rural areas around the world.
Walt Ratterman was in Haiti in January 2010 to check the solar system he helped set up for another development agency, Partners in Health.
His body was recovered four weeks after the quake amid the ruins of the Hotel Montana in Port-au-Prince.
Keeping the agency moving ahead was a good way for everybody to deal with the uncertainty during the weeks following the tragedy, Briana Ratterman, 30, said.
“He was missing for that month, and there were projects on the table,” she said. “I kept thinking he’d be coming home. I wanted things to be in the right place when he came home.
“It gave me something to focus on that made me feel close to him.”
A major loss
The finality of the funeral was followed by questions about the organization’s future.
The family’s response was, “There are projects to complete; we’ll get this done,” Briana Ratterman said.
“‘We’ll do this and see where we’re at’ became our mantra,” she said. “We did get five projects done, and we feel good about that.”
Two projects were in Haiti and two were in Myanmar, also known as Burma.
The fifth, in Guatemala, was the final project for Harvey Toub, who died of prostate cancer in September. Toub wanted his ashes to be scattered in Malaysia, which says something about the type of people Walt Ratterman worked with.
Other engineers who worked with Ratterman will continue to do similar development projects with other organizations. Carol Weis recently returned from Haiti, where she worked on a project funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development.
“It’s eye-opening when you go to a hospital that doesn’t have electricity at night,” Weis said. “Doctors still have to give IVs and check on critical care patients by flashlight. We were at a hospital that had run out of fuel for the generator. We heard women all night long, giving birth” in the dark.
Basic power is one issue; reliable power is another, she said.
“You can damage expensive lab equipment if there are severe voltage variations or power spikes in electricity” from poorly maintained generators or an unreliable utility, Weis said. Those variations also may result in inaccurate test results.
“Walt inspired many people in the solar industry and we still feel the loss of his spirit and wisdom,” Weis added. “Walt and his family believed in giving opportunities to the less fortunate of this world.”
Former SunEPI engineers “can only hope to collectively touch as many people as he did in his short life,” Weis said.
“There are other great engineers and friends of Walt, quite a few incredible folks out there doing the work,” Briana Ratterman said. “The work continues.”
Other nonprofit agencies that worked with Ratterman will have the continued support of his family.
“Partners in Health has a very special place in our hearts,” Jeanne Ratterman said. The Energy for Health Project is working in undeveloped countries. Colorado-based Solar Energy International created a scholarship fund to train Third World students in renewable energy.
“Walt taught there several times,” Jeanne Ratterman said, and SunEPI’s remaining funds are going to that program.
Tom Vogt: 360-735-4558; tom.vogt@columbian.com.
