Award Honors Matt Simmons

ASPO-USA and the Peak Oil community continue to mourn the loss of our dear friend and tireless champion, Matt Simmons.  Since his untimely passing last year, we have kept Matt’s memory close in our hearts and minds.  We remain inspired by his keen intellect, indomitable spirit, unflappable integrity, and zest for life.  Matt is an enduring model of the strength of character and leadership that we aspire to, as individuals and as an organization.  It is only fitting, then, that ASPO-USA put his name on our most prestigious award.

Starting this year, the M. King Hubbert Award, given for excellence in energy education, will be known as the Matthew Simmons – M. King Hubbert Award.  Matt himself was among the three recipients of the Hubbert Award in 2005.  The new Simmons-Hubbert Award will be given to individuals who make outstanding contributions to advance understanding of and wise responses to Peak Oil and resource depletion.

The award is just one gesture of how ASPO-USA is working to honor and build on Matt’s tremendous legacy. The motto “Truth in Energy,” which is both the theme of the 2011 conference and the banner under which all of our work is organized, is a direct tribute to Matt’s determination to uncover and plainly speak the truth, even if it ruffled a few feathers (often more than a few).

Accomplished investment banker, pioneering Peak Oil expert, author, loving husband and father, loyal friend—those descriptors all applied, but it is impossible to capture Matt in a few words. But it did not take more than a few moments in his company to appreciate his unique gifts.  While we still feel his loss, we were fortunate to have known Matt as well as we did, and his legacy will live on.

Comments

By Lydia Simmons on September 18th, 2011 at 8:10 pm

Thank you so much for your kind words about my father. My family so appreciates your support, and I know my Dad is glowing up in Heaven right now. I hope that one of us can attend the next event in his name.
Best,
Lydia Simmons