Baldur Lindal, one of the world pioneers of direct utilization of geothermal energy, died in Reykjavik (Iceland) on 17th June 1997. He was born at a farm in northern Iceland on 17th August 1918. His father, Jakob Lindal, was a farmer and self-educated geologist. Baldur Lindal graduated as a chemical engineer from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He worked as an engineer for the Icelandic State Electricity Authority (later Orkustofnun) from 1949 to 1961, and after that, he ran his own consulting engineering office. He soon started working in geothermal research in Iceland and for nearly five decades, he spent endless hours on developing processes for the direct application of geothermal energy for industrial purposes