Harold Taft
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Harold Ernest Taft Jr. (September 5, 1922-September 28, 1991), affectionately known as "The World's Greatest Weatherman", was the first television meteorologist west of the Mississippi and, at the time of his death, the world's longest-serving TV meteorologist.
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. He was a junior member of General Dwight D. Eisenhower's staff for D-Day.
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". He was also a colonel in the Texas Air National Guard, and he was often referred to as "Colonel Taft" on the air, especially through the 1970s.
In 1975, he co-authored the book "Texas Weather" with fellow KXAS meteorologist Ron Godbey.
When new management at KXAS planned to replace Taft in the early 1980s, a grassroots campaign bombarded the station with complaints; "I Believe Harold" bumper stickers began appearing on cars, and advertisers threatened to pull their business. Management relented, and Taft remained a part of KXAS' news programs.
In 1985, he testified as an expert witness on wind shear, which he identified as the cause of the crash of Delta Air Lines Flight 191 on August 2, 1985 at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.
In the late 1980s, Taft was diagnosed with stomach cancer, and during his chemotherapy treatments, which left him frail and bald, he presented a series of reports on his health problems.
During his long bout with cancer, Taft continued to forecast the weather when he was able. His last weather broadcast was August 30, 1991, 41 years and 10 months after his first broadcast.
A devout Lutheran, Taft played his cornet at Sunday services 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 KXAS broadcast the service live.
He was posthumously presented the Award for Outstanding Service by a Broadcasting Meteorologist by the American Meteorological Society. Taft received the award "in recognition of his warmth as a broadcaster and his professionalism as a forecaster."
He is remembered fondly by residents of North Texas for his accuracy in forecasting, and for explaining technical meteorological concepts in layman's terms.
His widow, Pat, died in 1994.
