Farewell to John Devitt, VRLA pioneer

with the lead battery industry some five years before and his death, until now, has been unreported.

It is with sadness that Energy Storage Journal has to record the death of John Devitt, arguably the key figure in the development of the modern VRLA battery. He passed away, aged 96, on December 7, 2021. He had lost contact

John was born on September 27, 1925 in Denver, Colorado, a city where he was to spend most of his life. An early aptitude for science — he was making electromagnets at home aged eight — translated into a degree and later a masters in electrical engineering at Cornell university in Denver.

After a spell in the US Navy — he was in the naval reserve from 1943 to 1955 — mostly spent in battery research, he worked as chief engineer for a variety of Denver located companies. A

Haffejee quits as Metair CEO, Douwenga steps up to fill in during interim

The CEO of batteries and auto components group Metair Investments, Riaz Haffejee, resigned effective March 31.

The South Africa based group said in a regulatory filing on March 22 that Haffejee was also stepping down from its social and ethics committee.

CFO Sjoerd Douwenga was appointed as interim CEO and joined Metair’s social and ethics committee. Finance executive Anesh Jogia was appointed interim CFO.

Metair said Haffejee, who joined the company two years ago, was leaving to pursue other opportunities “more in line with his personal career goals”.

Haffejee successfully led the group through the impact of Covid-19, floods and riots and the group’s board wished him well, Metair said.

He would remain available for a period of two months up to the end of May to ensure a smooth transition and handover, Metair said.

pivotal moment in John’s life was when local manufacturing giant, Gates Rubber Company, then the largest manufacturer of rubber belts and hoses in the world, decided to go into the battery business,

He joined Gates in January 1965. Three months later John with his co-developer Don McLelland submitted a nine-page memo to CEO Charlie Gates called “Lead-Acid Sealed Cells”. The memo was to make history.

In effect Devitt’s proposal recommended the development of a cell that would perform in a manner similar to that of the sealed nickel-cadmium batteries then being sold.

It was an idea that John later said had been fermenting in his brain since listening to a presentation about nickelcadmium batteries five years before. John and McLelland issued the definitive patent in 1972.

Ken Peters, the man who perfected much of the design of later VRLA batteries, described its importance: “The development of gas recombining valve regulated designs has potentially been the most important advance in the development of the lead battery in the last half of the 20th century.

“Offering improved highrate output, higher specific energy and operating flexibility never previously envisaged, their use in telephone and UPS systems grew quickly replacing previously-used designs in standby applications.

“Within 10 years of the first installation by British Telecom in 1981, 60% of the telephone systems in Western Europe relied upon VRLA batteries for emergency power. Today [in 2006] it must be approaching 100%.”

John, who remained a pioneer in advancing battery storage technology until his late 80s, was honoured over the years with the International Lead Medal, the Gaston Planté award and membership of the Alpha/Beta society.”

“One of the legends of the lead battery industry has disappeared for good,” said one commentator. “We may not see men of such like again in our lifetimes.”

John Devitt, electrochemist, 1925-2021

Further promotion for Stryten’s Dickie

Ian Dickie was appointed director of OEM sales at Stryten Energy at the start of February.

He began his career at Exide Technologies in June 2012 as a district sales manager based in Mississauga, Ontario and moved to GNB Industrial Power, a division of Exide, in April 2014.

Dickie had increasing sales responsibility over the next few years and by 2020 was regional sales director for Canada, a position he carried further as the GNB Industrial Power segment was absorbed into Exide’s metamorphosis to Stryten Energy.

In July 2022 he became Stryten’s director of National Accounts which also included managing the new business development team for North America.