In Memorium: Professor Charles Christenson

The latest edition of my business school alumni magazine carried a brief announcement of the death of Chuck Christenson.  A shy and reserved man, Chuck gladly stepped forward in the Spring of 1991 to serve as one of two faculty advisors on what, in retrospect, was my insanely ambitious project to characterize and quantify all U.S. federal subsidies to energy. Over year or so I worked with him, he gave generously of his time and insights to help me get the subsidy accounting right.  

One of Christenson's lesser known professional contributions is the work he did on lease structure and accounting for windfarms.  Buying the land on which to place all turbines and equipment outright was extremely expensive, and a significant impediment to the growth of industry.  Christenson's work helped solve this problem.

I'm grateful to have known him, and to have had his contributions.  You can read more about Professor Christenson in this earlier release by HBS.