Michael Alfred Selig

SELIG, Michael Alfred Former Director of Engineering at NORESCO located in Fairfax, VA and headquartered in Westborough, MA, died on February 22, 2011 after a long and demanding battle with metastatic cancer. He was 55 years old. Born in Vienna the eldest child of Austrian parents, Mr. Selig's family immigrated to Irving, Texas in 1959. After achieving U.S. citizenship in eleven years, and with two additional siblings, the family moved back to Europe for several years. This relocation and exposure to different cultures enabled Mr. Selig to develop a deep and lasting appreciation and aptitude for foreign languages, customs, cuisine, and culture that always remained with him. Indeed, international travel was one of Mr. Selig's most enjoyable and rewarding activities throughout his life. Mr. Selig earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1977, whereupon he immediately established his career path in the advancement of energy efficiency and renewable energy. His employment has always centered on efficiency improvements in existing processes and buildings, and technological developments in new and most often renewable energy concepts. Always a conservationist at home as well, Mr. Selig powered his Boston apartment on photovoltaic electricity for almost two years (prior to marrying Elizabeth Willingham in 1983), and has continued to operate a solar electric system for various applications around the familyhouse. Known as a strong organizer and leader who naturally motivated and enthusiastically inspired those around him, Mr. Selig regularly explored new activities, sports, and challenges both professionally and personally. From the creator of a model rocketry club during childhood to organized pilgrimages to learn what was then the new environmental sport of the day - paragliding - Mr. Selig was always pursuing new adventures in life. He led an adult recreational soccer team, played bass in a string band, later coached his children's soccer teams, and began (but never finished) a project to build a tree house 70 feet over his back yard in Arlington, VA. In Dorchester, MA, Mr. Selig built a seven foot retaining wall, a back yard, and a laundry, a home brewery, and a Finnish sauna in his 100 year old Victorian home. He was an avid skier and windsurfer, and was just beginning to learn to kite surf. Professionally, Mr. Selig had the good fortune of being selected in 1992 to join Michael Dukakis and numerous Commonwealth of Massachusetts dignitaries and business leaders in an Environmental Trade Mission to central and eastern Europe, a trip designed to promote Massachusetts environmental businesses in new markets after the fall of the Berlin wall. The trip was paramount in developing a number of engineering projects, most notably a multi-million dollar expansion of the district heating system in Krakow, Poland. Over time, Mr. Selig built a reputation in the Boston business community for being well-versed in growing businesses overseas, and was a speaker and panel member at numerous meetings and conferences dedicated to the subject. While Mr. Selig was a very hard worker in his career, he was also very adamant about striking a balance between his professional and personal lives. He was a family man who tried very hard to teach his children about the challenges and joys of life. Vacations typically took him and his family to far-away destinations where his children would be exposed to foreign languages and food, not infrequently to the land of his children's partial heritage - Austria. When not traveling internationally, free time was spent motorcycling, camping, brewing beer, playing chess and bridge, gardening, and generally adding to life's experiences and challenges. Mr. Selig is survived by his wife Elizabeth Willingham and children Michael and Alexandra of Arlington, VA, his parents Franz and Marianne of Vienna, Austria, his brother Martin of Boston, MA, and his sister Nicola Kim of Little Rock, AR. In lieu of flowers, please send a donation to the Solar Electric Light Fund, 1612 K Street, NW Washington, DC (www.self.org) or purchase REC's or SREC's from your local utility or travel service provider.