[RE-wrenches] Walt Ratterman found

[Foster, Robert]

Our prayers and thoughts are with the Ratterman family.

>From the Calgary Herald:

Quake victim's legacy of caring spans globe

BY VALERIE FORTNEY, CALGARY HERALD FEBRUARY 9, 2010

At some point in the early morning hours of Monday, a body was pulled
from the rubble of the Hotel Montana in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. It was a
scene that's been played out thousands of times in this heartbroken
country since an earthquake hit Jan. 12, the death toll having now
topped 200,000.

While the loss of each innocent life is a tragedy in itself, the
discovery of this one body has sent waves of grief around an entire
planet, touching down everywhere from Calgary to Pakistan, to Burma and
Sudan, and into some of its most remote corners.

That's because whether you were a Papua New Guinean tribesman, an Afghan
peasant or a wealthy American philanthropist, Walt Ratterman had a way
of getting into your heart. This longtime humanitarian wanted the world
to be a better place, and was willing to roll up his sleeves and get to
work to make it so.

Two weeks ago, I shared with Herald readers Walt's story, of how I and a
few other Calgarians came to be lucky enough to make his acquaintance
these past few years.

Photographer Dianne Bos remembered Walt as a "real live action hero;"
Sally Goddard, mother of Capt. Nichola Goddard, Canada's first female
soldier to die in combat, said he was like a heroic character out of a
great novel; and Grady Semmens, of the University of Calgary's media
relations department, described Walt as Indiana Jones in the flesh.

Even people like Dave Irvine-Halliday, founder of the internationally
renowned Light Up the World Foundation -- whose organization brings
solar-powered, LED technology to parts of the world where electricity is
a luxury -- expressed awe for this man who jokingly described himself as
a "mercenary humanitarian."

If you have been one of the thousands of Calgarians who have donated
money to Light Up the World over the past few years, Walt was the man
who put your generosity into practical use, installing lighting systems
in places like Papua New Guinea, India and Pakistan, and showing the
local people how to keep them in good working condition.

Even though he had been missing more than two weeks when I first wrote
about Walt, none of us wanted to refer to him in the past tense; that
seemed like a jinx and, well, if anyone could pull off a surprise, it
was Walt.

We joined the nearly 2,000 other international members on a Facebook
page dedicated to the search for the 57-year-old resident of Washington,
finding ourselves part of a community of strangers joined in hope and
prayer. We kept secretly thinking that if they couldn't find a body,
maybe he was somewhere else, simply lost but soon to find his way home.

What we did find was a place to learn of the heroic efforts of
search-and-rescue teams in Haiti, people who are taking on the thankless
task of sifting through tons of rubble each day without complaint. We
also learned of Walt's exploits around the world, the way he quietly
thumbed his nose to corrupt governments even under the threat of death.
We shared in the tributes from people like Bob Allen, who helped to find
Walt and other fallen aid workers at the Hotel Montana. Allen celebrated
his "audacity to try to help marginalized and suffering people by
bringing them power systems, food and medical supplies;" and Mutamba
Diane, who described his death as "a loss to Rwanda . . . and the
world."

Yes, Walt's is just one story from the Haiti earthquake. On that day we
lost so many, from so many walks of lives. Thousands of aid workers died
and thousands are still missing. But his story is one that I know, that
I can share, of an incredible man with ties to this city and so many
others.

Walt Ratterman leaves to mourn his wife Jeanne, and children Briana and
Shane.

He also leaves a legacy of compassion and kindness that spans across the
globe. It wasn't just a well-lived life.

It was a heroic one.

Read
more:http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/calgary/Quake%20victim%20legacy%2
0caring%20spans%20globe/2539710/story.html#ixzz0f3Nrj65G


Robert Foster
Chief Engineer
Afghanistan Clean Energy Project

ACEP Kabul tel. +93 (0) 795-996-895
New Mexico State University tel. 575-646-3948


> Date: Mon, 08 Feb 2010 13:34:56 -0800
> From: Michael Welch <michael.welch at re-wrenches.org>
> To: re-wrenches at re-wrenches.org
> Subject: [RE-wrenches] Walt Ratterman found
> Message-ID: <20100208213532.AC1C6181094 at friskymail-a3.g.dreamhost.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
> Hello friends.
>
> I am saddened to let you know that Walt's remains were found in the rubble
> of the Hotel Montana, and he will be flown home soon.
>
> His family was notified last night, and is planning a memorial, and will
> be in touch through the Facebook page that was set up when he was first
> missing.
>
> http://tinyurl.com/FacebookWalt
>