Joseph M. Dukert, Ph.D., one of Washington’s leading energy policy experts whose contributions ranged from having worked on the original Vanguard rocket project as an executive with the Martin Company to being editor-in-chief five times for the U.S. government’s annual National Energy Policy Plan, died Feb. 5. He was 90.
Born on September 29, 1929, to Andrew and Maggie Dukert in Baltimore, he grew up in one of the city’s classic row houses as the youngest of four children and attended Mount Saint Joseph High School, where he excelled in debating and oratory.
Dukert went on to be a lifelong scholar. He graduated magna cum laude from Notre Dame in 1951, studied geopolitics and international relations at Georgetown University, Johns Hopkins University and the Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS), received a master’s degree from SAIS in 1993 and a Ph.D. from SAIS in 2005. He wrote a dissertation on the Mexican energy economy as well as several books, including “Energy,” “This is Antarctica” and “A Short Energy History of the United States.”
A member of the Cosmos Club and the Explorers Club, Dukert was a guest lecturer at the Foreign Service Institute and a senior adviser to the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation. He visited all 50 states and more than 60 foreign countries. He made three trips to Antarctica, including two to the South Pole.
Dukert was an active, longtime member of the International Association for Energy Economics (IAEE) and the U.S. Association for Energy Economics (USAEE). He also served as president of the National Capital Area Chapter of USAEE.
He is survived by his wife, Betty Cole Dukert, who retired as executive producer of NBC’s “Meet the Press” following 41 years with the program. Joseph Dukert’s next-oldest sibling, Cecelia, died in Baltimore 11 days before he did. Gawler’s Funeral Home in Washington handled the arrangements for his funeral, which was held February 11.
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