Harold Taft

Harold Earnest Taft Jr. (September 5, 1922 – September 27, 1991), affectionately known as "The World's Greatest Weatherman" and "The Dean of TV Meteorologists", was the first television meteorologist west of the Mississippi River and held the post for a record 41 years.

A native of Enid, Oklahoma, he joined the Army Air Corps during World War II, and went to the University of Chicago to study meteorology.

Taft was a second lieutenant stationed in Maine on D-Day.

He has been erroneously credited with assisting Dwight D. Eisenhower in setting the date of the D-Day invasion.

His input from Maine may have been of minor help, but he was still too young and inexperienced to have been involved in major decisions.

However, by Korea, he assisted with tactical planning where weather was a factor.

He graduated from Phillips University in 1946 and joined American Airlines as a staff meteorologist.

In 1949, Taft and two fellow American Airlines meteorologists, Bob Denney and Walter Porter, proposed a nightly weather program to WBAP-TV (now KXAS).

“We told them we would present a three-dimensional look at the weather, and we would call it Weather Telefacts, because we wanted to explain the weather to people,” he later said.

The three meteorologists were hired, Taft as chief meteorologist at the rate of $7 per show, and at 10:15 p.m. on October 31, 1949, Weather Telefacts premiered.

Harold's weather forecasts also aired on WBAP radio, where overnight personality Bill Mack nicknamed him "The World's Greatest Weatherman".

Much in the style of Chicago weathercaster Tom Skilling, Taft resisted dumbing down of his presentations, explaining complicated meteorological concepts in layman's terms where needed and enhancing charts with isobars and upper-level diagrams.

This was occasionally a source of conflict with KXAS producers.

When new management at KXAS planned to replace Taft in the early 1980s, a grassroots campaign bombarded the station with complaints.

Bumper stickers proclaiming "I Believe Harold" began appearing and advertisers threatened to pull their business.

Management relented, and Taft remained a permanent part of KXAS' news programs.

In the late 1980s, Taft was diagnosed with stomach cancer.

During his chemotherapy treatments, which left him frail and bald, he presented a series of reports on his health problems.

In spite of the hardships, Taft continued to forecast the weather.

Even during his last year of life, he continued to present weather reports on the 5pm and 6pm newscasts.

One of his colleagues noted that he was so ill that he had to lie down and rest between the two newscasts.

His last weather broadcast was August 30, 1991, 41 years and 10 months after his first broadcast, and he died a month later.

A devout Lutheran, Taft had been a regular cornet player at St. John Lutheran Church in Grand Prairie and King of Glory Lutheran Church in Fort Worth.

His funeral service had to be moved to St. Stephen's Presbyterian Church, one of Fort Worth's largest churches, to accommodate the crowd of mourners and a live KXAS broadcast.

Taft's rival of 15 years, chief weather anchor Troy Dungan of WFAA-TV, attended the service.

Taft is survived by his 2 children from a first marriage to Eleanor Huff Taft, Janice Taft Spooner and Earnest Taft, and several stepchildren from a second marriage.

Taft was posthumously presented the Award for Outstanding Service by a Broadcasting Meteorologist by the American Meteorological Society.

He received the award "in recognition of his warmth as a broadcaster and his professionalism as a forecaster."

His widow, Pat, died in 1994, and his first wife Eleanor died in 2004.