Farewell To Two Industry Leaders

It is with great sorrow that we announce the passing of Lacy Suiter, who died August 8th at the George Washington University Hospital in Washington, D.C., after a heart attack on July 25.  Lacy was surrounded by his loving wife, Norma Jean, and other family members.

Lacy was a giant in the field of emergency management and leaves a legacy that is rare in any business today.  Not only did he understand the needs of the changing world in which we live, he was a highly respected visionary, a colleague and a mentor beyond compare.

Lacy had been the director of Tennessee Emergency Management.  He recognized it was vital to build the strong local foundation and he was willing to go anywhere in the state anytime to support a local emergency manager.  As executive associate director for the Response and Recovery Directorate at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), he maintained his strong interest in local emergency management and brought new energy to his vision for emergency management.

Condolences may be sent to Norma Jean Suiter in Nashville at P.O. Box 148671, Nashville, TN 27214-8671.

It is with great sadness that we announce the tragic death of Craig Marks, CEM, CERP.  Craig died on the evening of August 8th as a result of a tractor accident at his home.  Craig was a very active IAEM member during the last several years.  He is a past member of the CEM® Commission and Scholarship Commission and a past chair of the Membership and Marketing Committee and the Training and Education Committee.  In 2004-2005, he wrote the “Eye on Education” column for the IAEM Bulletin.  Craig was a tremendous visionary and student advocate.
 
Craig was the author of “Professional Competencies for the Master’s Level Emergency Manager,” a study that developed a written set of competencies for educational programs at the Master’s level.  This study was completed under contract to the Federal Emergency Management Agency Higher Education Project.
 
Craig was a founding member and immediate past president of the Foundation on Higher Education, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving emergency management education worldwide.  He was deeply involved in developing standards to accredit university emergency management degree programs worldwide as well as developing a program to credential first responders.
 
He was an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  While at UNC, Craig served as the director of the Community Preparedness and Disaster Management Program, a graduate level program in the UNC School of Public Health.  He also was on the faculty of the American Military University.
 
Craig was the founder and president of Blue Horizons Consulting, LLC, a company dedicated to increasing preparedness in public and private sector companies and infrastructure through planning, exercises and leadership training.  He was also the director of operations for Blue Sky Foundation, a 501c3 organization engaged in mitigation strategies to create disaster resilient communities, and in the development of programs for bringing interoperability to first responder communities.

[Excerpts from two messages by IAEM’s President, Marg Verbeek]