Ed received a BS in Electrical Engineering at the U.S. Naval Academy in 1942 and also received Masters degrees at MIT in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering (1946) and in Nuclear Physics (1950). At the time, he was a career naval officer, having served aboard a light cruiser in World War II.

By the early 1950s, Ed had joined Admiral Rickover's team, where he played a key role in the development, demonstration and deployment of the nuclear reactor that powered the USS Nautilus, the first nuclear submarine. This experience profoundly influenced Ed’s management philosophy. He recalled that Admiral Rickover rejected advice from the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) labs that he carry out a lengthy research and development program before building a conservatively designed nuclear test reactor before attempting to design and build a reactor that could fit in a submarine. Instead, Rickover issued orders to his team that the test reactor ("Mark I") would be built immediately and be identical to the one that would power the submarine ("Mark II"). "Mark I equals Mark II," was Rickover’s plan, according to Kintner. It worked, and Ed never forgot it.

Ed later retired from the Navy and joined the nuclear fission reactor development program at the AEC. There he was a senior manager overseeing at first the development of advanced light water reactors (that became the workhorse of today's commercial nuclear power industry) and, later, the development of fission breeder reactors.

In the mid 1970s, then head of the U.S. fusion program, Bob Hirsch, hired Ed as his deputy, hoping to instill some Rickover spirit into the fusion program. In 1976, when AEC was transformed into the Energy Research and Development Agency (ERDA) and Hirsch was promoted to Assistant Administrator, Kintner assumed the position of head of the U.S. fusion program. Hirsch had commissioned the preparation of a comprehensive fusion development plan that was completed in July 1976 (posted at http://fire.pppl.gov/us_fusion_plan_1976.pdf). The Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) was already under construction at Princeton and the plan called for building a series of test facilities in the 1980s and 1990s, culminating in a fusion Demonstration Power Plant around the year 2000. Kintner believed the plan was sound.

ERDA became the Department of Energy in 1978 and Kintner remained head of fusion, though Hirsch departed to Exxon. Kintner and others testified to a congressional hearing chaired by Rep. Mike McCormack that led to the passage of the Magnetic Fusion Energy Engineering Act of 1980. President Carter signed Act into law on October 1980 (posted at http://fire.pppl.gov/mfe_act_1980.pdf).

Carter lost the election to Ronald Reagan the following month. The new Administration opposed having the government build large energy "flagship" facilities or demonstration plants. The private sector would develop any needed new energy technologies was their view. Still, Kintner spent the next year trying to convince the Administration to implement the fusion plan. He believed that construction of new test facilities had to be the "strategic backbone" of any commercially successful fusion effort.

It soon became clear that the plan would not be implemented and, a year later, Ed resigned. In his letter of resignation he said he felt the Administration was making "a national error for which a price far greater than present savings will be paid at some future date." He said, "There is little more that I can do except to make clear by my leaving that I am not a party to that decision." (Fusion Power Associates Executive Newsletter, January 1982). Ed felt that the "strategic backbone" of the fusion program had been removed. He often reminded his staff of another of Admiral Rickover’s favorite mottoes: "Where there is no vision, the people perish."

One of the two nuclear fission power plants at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania had had a meltdown in April 1979 and the cleanup was not going well. Shortly after Ed left the DOE, the owners of Three Mile Island, GPU Nuclear in New Jersey, hired Ed to be Executive Vice President and put him in charge of finishing the cleanup at Three Mile Island. He held that position until his retirement 9 years later.

Ed, and his wife Alice, then moved to a beautiful house on the side of a mountain at the border of Vermont and New Hampshire, overlooking the Dartmouth University campus. For several years Ed gave seminars at Dartmouth. They later moved to The Ridge, a retirement home in Exeter, NH.

Ed received the Secretary of the Navy Commendation Medal in 1959, the Fusion Power Associates Leadership Award in 1981 and was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1990. He also received other commendations, too numerous to list.

Ed had an outgoing and friendly personality that endeared him to all, even when he was taking a hard line on a tough management issue. Many will miss him greatly. His wife, Alice, three sons, Eric, John and Peter, a daughter, Mary, and four grandchildren survive him

Condolences can be sent to Alice at eandakintner@comcast.net
Condolences can also be sent to Eric at Ekintner@aol.com

There will be a memorial service June 12, 2 PM, at Christ Episcopal Church in Exeter, NH. Persons planning to attend should let Peter Kintner know at eileenandpete@mac.com