Ted Keller
I’ve been in the weather business for a long time but my interest in weather goes back to my youth. Several storms made an impact during my childhood which spurred my interest in weather. I was raised in the southern suburbs of Chicago were I remember being “pulled” home rather urgently by my mother on the day of the
Oak Lawn tornado. Looking north, it was the first time I’d ever seen the sky green. Later that night the television news was not just about the Oak Lawn storm but of the outbreak of tornadoes which hit Chicagoland on this day. Pictured are the scans of the Chicago Sun Times special editions for this tragic day.
The next vivid memory involves very dark skies, hail and a concerned-looking fifth-grade teacher. When I got home, it was apparent my school was on the northern end of a
massive outbreak of tornadoes which occurred on April 3-4, 1973. The late seventies in Chicago were cold! Lots of record lows were established all over the central and eastern U.S. during this time, some were talking ice age and snow was being shipped out of Buffalo, NY on railcars! Like many parents, mine were supportive of my hobby and gave me a “loan” to buy a thermograph, barograph, wind vane and anemometer. I kept records (don’t have them). The only surviving instrument is the barograph: the thermrograph is probably still at my alma mater Northern Illinois University (I was trying to prove how hot the weather office used to get!) and the wind instruments stayed with the house.
Speaking of college, Northern was a great in-state college which offered a meteorology degree.
John Colman visits Missouri State University in 2008
I don’t think you would have tagged me for a television guy in college. In fact the idea of doing the weather on T.V. was never on my radar. It started when I got back to school one fall to find out that an upper-level student had put togther a 15 minute weather show called “WeatherLine”. It was modelled somewhat after the long-running PBS show “AM Weather”. It required two “hosts” and people to run the cameras. I signed up for the camera work but after about a week I was asked to reconsider being in front of the camera. I said yes and so was the humble start to my career. “WeatherLine” led to “The DeKalb Evening News” and my first practice in front of the “green screen”. My first job straight out of college (1984) was with WEAU-TV in Eau Claire, WI with a move in 1986 to my present job at KOLR-TV in Springfield, MO. What’s funny is while I never thought about being on T.V. during these beginning years, it was in fact the television weathercasters and meteorologists who spurred on my interest in the field. Folks like John Colman, Harry Volkman, “Dr. Dave” Eiser (a foot doctor FYI) and later Jerry Taft and of course the legendary Tom Skilling !
Shortly after arriving in town, I was fortunate to have met up with the late Dr. Don McInnis at the Southwest Missouri State University. We became friends and he asked if I wanted to help him by teaching the lab for the beginning Atmospheric Science class.
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