Frances Keenan, chair of the Paice Board of Directors, shares her memories of Joseph D. Tydings, a former U.S. Senator from Maryland who served on the Paice board for more than twenty years. Sen. Tydings died on October 8 at age 90.

We lost once of Paice’s greatest champions, and one of our dearest friends, when Senator Tydings passed away last week.

Senator Tydings was the one who first introduced Paice to the Abell Foundation. The Senator was a University of Maryland graduate who maintained close ties to the university throughout his life. Senator Tydings’ work with the university brought him in contact with Dr. Alex Severinsky, an electrical engineer who began developing Paice’s hybrid vehicle technology in the early 1990s with the support of a University of Maryland business incubator program.

Senator Tydings recognized the potential of Paice’s hybrid technology and wanted it to succeed. By bringing together Paice and the Abell Foundation, he ensured that Paice had the financial resources necessary to make Alex’s technology viable.

Senator Tydings joined the Paice Board of Directors in 1997 and immediately provided valuable guidance and direction — to the company, and to me personally. It was a relationship that lasted more than twenty years, and I cherished every bit of it.

The Senator’s extraordinary life and accomplishments are portrayed in his autobiography, My Life in Progressive Politics: Against the Grain.

I am proud to consider Joe Tydings a mentor and a friend. He was always eager to offer his support, and always willing to help us navigate the obstacles standing in our way.

The New York Times and Baltimore Sun published touching tributes to the honorable life of our dear friend Sen. Tydings. They laud him as a champion of gun control and civil rights.

He was also one of our biggest champions, and we will miss him dearly.