Ed Crooke, director and former vice chairman of Constellation Energy and Baltimore Gas & Electric, died of cancer on Sunday. Crooke was part of BGE's old, pre-deregulation guard, headed by Chris Poindexter, which gave way to new leadership following the 2001 terrorist attacks. Constellation had planned to split BGE off as a separate company, and Crooke was going to be its boss. But in the energy market turmoil and general economic chaos that followed 9/11, Constellation's board wisely decided it needed the stable cash flow from the BGE ratepayers to anchor the whole enterprise.

Poindexter gave up the CEO slot to Mayo Shattuck, who until then had been an outside director. Poindexter held the chairmanship for a time. Crooke retired as vice chairman of Constellation/BGE in December 2001, but he stayed on as a member of the board of directors.

Read BGE's statement on Crooke here. Read Fred Rasmussen's obituary here.