George Williams Barlow, 52, retired chief technology officer with the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) in San Jose, CA, died Oct. 12.

 

Barlow was a 12-year VTA employee. He joined the agency in 1995 as deputy director of maintenance, managing maintenance of the agency’s multimodal fleet, light rail system, facilities, and right-of-way.

 

During his tenure with VTA, Barlow led the agency’s pursuit of a “low-emission diesel path” to comply with California Air Resources Board regulations to reduce nitrogen oxide and particulate matter emissions from public transit buses. He led the Zero Emissions Bus Program in 2005, when VTA demonstrated hydrogen fuel cell technology.

 

Barlow came to VTA from the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, where he gained 10 years of transit industry experience in operations, personnel, and maintenance management. Earlier he served six years in the U.S. Navy, supervising the operation and maintenance of nuclear reactor plants.

 

He was active in the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials.