One of the earliest employees at the Department of Energy, deputy general counsel Eric Fygi, is retiring this week about 45 years after joining the fledgling agency, a spokesperson confirmed Wednesday.
“Fygi has been with the Department since its inception in 1977,” a DOE spokesperson said via email. “[H]e is currently DOE’s fifth-longest-tenured Federal employee, having served at DOE as well as the Department of Justice; the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare; the Executive Office of the President; the Federal Energy Office; the Federal Energy Administration; and the U.S. Army,” the spokesperson said.
In addition to serving as DOE’s deputy general counsel since the DOE’s founding during the Jimmy Carter administration in October 1977, Fygi has periodically served as the agency’s acting general counsel, according to his online federal biography.
Together with DOE general counsel Samuel Walsh, Fygi helps run the agency’s legal affairs, overseeing more than 100 government lawyers.
During his career, Fygi won four Presidential Rank Awards and other accolades, according to the biography. Fygi’s last day is Friday, a nuclear energy source told ExchangeMonitor.
