We Mourn the Passing of Craig Hartman
With great sadness and regret I announce the passing of our dear friend and associate, Craig Hartman. Craig was diagnosed with Leukemia earlier this year but progressed well though all the treatment including resistance to the COVID virus he contracted along the way. He continued to conduct webinars and work on projects from home through all of this. Approximately one month ago Craig was hospitalized and received a successful bone marrow transplant. Unfortunately, with the loss of his immune systems, he contracted a fungal infection which took over faster than the successful bone marrow transplant. Craig passed away on December 20th 2020.
Professional Life
Professionally, Craig was a giant. He started his engineering career with Westinghouse Electric Corporation in 1980 where he developed expertise in many areas but including large motor systems, protective relaying, adjustable speed drives, power systems and related short circuit and harmonic studies. He joined Mitsubishi Electrical Sales America in 1988 and assisted in the highly successful introduction of the Z series VFD, one of the first fully digital space vector drives in the market. He spent 3 more years in Chicago as a Senior Electrical Project Engineer for Crown Machine before moving to Utah to join Geneva Steel as Manager of Electrical Engineering. Craig led the electrical engineering department through the design and completion of upgrades and modernization projects in the hundreds of millions of dollars. In 1991 he became a member of the corporate management team as Geneva’s Director of Engineering and Technology. In 2003 Craig joined Energy Management Corporation as VP of Engineering. Over the past 18 years, Craig has been critical to EMC’s success through his technical leadership, expertise as a professional engineer and his selfless sharing of knowledge through seminars and webinars to thousands of individuals worldwide.
Personal Life
Personally, Craig was one of the most loyal and selfless individuals I have known. He was without guile. Even with his brilliant mind and prestigious electrical engineering awards and accolades, he was the most approachable engineer I have ever known. He would always make everyone else feel important and he had a rare gift to be able to communicate something that was highly technical in a way that anyone could understand. Often bringing magic tricks into his technical presentations, he made even the most mundane interesting. As a magician, he selflessly brightened the days of thousands of individuals whether it was an associate dropping by his office or hundreds of children through his many volunteering activities.
Photo Gallery of Craig
Craig’s obituary can be viewed here:
https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/salt-lake-city-ut/craig-hartman-9959973
Craig will be deeply missed by all that knew him. Those wishing to share memories and experiences with Craig are encouraged to do so by posting comments below that can be viewed by his family, friends, and fellow associates. Thank you.
Co-founder
Steve Rossiter co-founded Energy Management Corporation in 1979 and currently serves as its CEO. He has over 40 years’ experience in industrial automation specializing in electrical motor and AC drive applications in power systems. He patented one of the first widely used filter designs in harmonic mitigation and has worked on various committees in industry organizations including IEEE and EASA and authored papers and articles published in their journals and newsletters. In his free time, he enjoys flyfishing, snowmobiling, rockhounding and gemology.
Thank you Steve for posting this. I echo your words whole heartedly. Craig was the best manager and teacher that I ever had. I am privileged to have known and worked for him.
A very sad day. The world has lost a great man. Craig’s knowledge and comfortable personality set him apart from the world, yet there he was, a great friend in the world like the rest of us. I am grateful that I got to know Craig.
Craig was a super star in front of cameras. I will always remember when we were creating educational videos, Craig knew exactly what to say and how to say it. He understood production value and knew how to work with each cut scenes. He always made time for my questions and he answered them patiently no matter how dumb they were. He will always be one of the brightest and friendliest individuals I know.
Craig had an amazing ability to communicate. The only dumb questions are the ones which aren’t asked, and Craig made folks comfortable asking them. He was an amazing guy.
I met Craig when we spent 2 weeks working at a power plant on Ft. Wainwright in Fairbanks. Craig was installing a masterfully creative solution to a huge problem caused by the private engineering company. Craig had invented the solution without being asked or compensated. Only a handful of people in the world could have understood what Craig had come up with (I wasn’t one), but the benefit was so enormous that the contractor told me the Corps of Engineers was considering letters of commendation for me and Craig. I told the COE I really didn’t deserve one, but Craig should get a statue. Craig was one of the most brilliant people I ever worked with and also one of the finest people I have ever met. As the QC manager and now CEO of the contractor said to me this morning, Craig was one of a kind in the best way possible. Amen
I always loved his webinars. He had this special positive energy and sound engineering thoughts. He made a one-hour presentation, a great engineering moment and always gave sincere and thoughtful answers. I have known EMC and followed Craig only since this year but I have great respect for this great and wise engineer.
(From an electrical engineer on a small island in the Indian Ocean. “Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.”)
I have known Craig since 1991 when I called on him as an Allen-Bradley Sales Engineer at Geneva Steel. He was the consummate professional. I really enjoyed doing business with him. I did not always have the answers he needed but he was patient with me and helped me learn be successful in my career. I have since retired and would not have known of his passing. I offer my prayers and condolences to his family.
Craig was a great man and it was my pleasure to have known him. I did not get to see him often but when I did he was always a genuinely nice person. He will be missed.
Craigs family and friends. I personally never met him. I personally was in the same business he was in. He was well respected, I personally attended anything he shared his knowledge and experience in. Greatly missed by a true student of the business. We all will miss him. He was a great man.
So sad to hear this. I did not know Craig well personally though we met on several occasions being in the same industry. I also have enjoyed several of his presentations and loved how he integrated the magic! The thing that struck me most about him was how smart he was yet he could make you feel smart too. A lot of people with his smarts seem to prefer showing the world just how smart they are, but not Craig, at least not to me. I always felt a little smarter having been around him.
Craig was a gentle soul. He was very well mannered and made you feel very comfortable around him. I met him when I worked at EMC from 1992 to 1996. During one of my experiments, I visited Geneva Steel to install newly designed DC link chokes. He was very kind to allow me to use Mitsubishi drives at Geneva Steel to be fitted with the DC link chokes to improve power factor and reduce harmonics. He was a champion of Science and Technology. His understanding was deep and complete. I also knew him from an evening course that I taught at Univ. of Utah during my tenure at EMC. He was my star student. I enjoyed his poignant questions and we often discussed the physics/concept behind the reasons for reducing harmonics and improving power factor. I am truly saddened by this tragic news. I have many good memories of Craig and I hope that the Lord gives his family the strength to carry on during these difficult days.
Craig was so incredibly friendly and was a big part of the warmth I felt when I joined EMC. He was one of the first people to talk to introduce himself and make me feel welcome when he noticed me. He couldn’t pronounce my last name so he would just call me “Mr. John”, which always cracked me up. Sending love to his family, he will be greatly missed.
Such a kind person and quite the character! He will be missed. My heart goes out to his family and those that had the pleasure to mow him.
I first met Craig taking a class together at U of U in about ’88. He didn’t need the class. He knew it all already. Next he was my boss at Geneva Steel. I watched that brilliant man diagnose a problem that absolutely astounded me. He was brilliant. I’ve had brushes with him over the years. He will be missed. My best wishes and condolences to his family.
We are saddened for this loss. We pray for his family and coworkers that were close to him. Craig was a delight in his professional life. I reached out to him many times over the years for help.
Always willing and kind. The electrical industry lost great support from this good man. We will miss you Craig! Thank You!
Very sorry to hear about this. Craig was a master teacher. He made all Electrical Designers and Engineers better as Royal Engineering. I will miss his teaching sessions and eating lunch with him. This is a great loss to the whole electrical community. I wish his family the best during this time and the weeks and mounths to come.
I was deeply saddened to hear about Craig’s passing. Although I only crossed path with Craig a handful of times, he felt like a friend and was a person I always looked forward to seeing, both personally and professionally. His way of explaining engineering subjects reminded me of my favorite professor in school, and recognizing this rarity I soaked up every ounce of knowledge I could from Craig, and he was always more than willing to share it. His passing is a huge loss to our region in numerous ways. He will be sorely missed.
My heart felt prayers go out to the family of Craig. Craig was a giant in his field and never failed to solicit a smile from our office when he was here. I very much enjoyed his sense of humor and looked up him as a reference and expert in the field of electrical motors, motor control and electrical engineering in general. He will be sorely missed and leaves a large shadow to be filled by the next generation of aspiring engineers.
I did not know Craig personally but did always take time to attend his presentations at any conference we co-attended. His insights and euphemisms were incredibly memorable. An extremely knowledgeable individual, he will be missed.
Craig office and mine were right next to each other, he became a friend like no other, we were always testing electrical theory on one another, of course Craig usually won. I did get him on one funny one I noticed he owned a gas fireplace and mentioned he should put a fan in for better efficiency he agreed then I said you know the switch on the wall that turns the heat on? Yes why Craig said. I asked do you know why the switch works when the powers out and you can get heat. No fan but the flame
ignites and saved my wife and I from a very cold night. Well Craig didn’t know! Amazing, the most refined and knowledgeable Engineer I have ever met. Wow finally I can win one. Anyway the answer is a thermal pile that is always heated when the pilot is on. The thermal pile converts heat to electrical energy, the can be maybe 750mv to maybe 1-1/2 volts in a fireplace. So the wall switch has maybe 1 and 1/2 volts on it. Works great, so I won 1 out of a thousand.
Craig was a mans man and great friend I just froze finding out. Yes he could solve problems well into the future. He never grandstanded even though he deserved to
Dear Craig Hartman was one in a billion I will miss him like a brother, he was the brightest star I met with 50 plus years in electrical. I hope God has a plan to use Craigs knowlege to help the world, it is always a better place with Mr Hartman in it. The world misses you Craig
I stumbled across this post inadvertently, though I’m glad I did. Sad news indeed, though Steve did a fantastic job highlighting the incredible character traits of Craig. The image of Craig entertaining at a party is the first mental memory which comes to my mind. Craig was an incredible person who helped shape my career as a then budding Electrical Engineer.
Craig made a lasting impression on my life…he will definitely be missed.