Legendary TV weatherman Nash C. Roberts Jr., revered as much for his calm, level-headed presence as the accuracy of his hurricane path projections, has died at age 92, WWL-TV has reported.
For more than 50 years, Gulf Coast weather-watchers relied on Mr. Roberts to tell them where tropical storms would come ashore.
From before Hurricane Betsy in 1965 to beyond Hurricane Georges in 1998, Mr. Roberts was widely considered the region's most authoritative source for hurricane news.
And in the age of Super Doppler and satellite imagery, there remained for hundreds of thousands of New Orleanians a great sense of relief in seeing Mr. Roberts on screen with his throwback bulletin-board-style weather map and felt-tip pens.
"He was old school, but you know what? I miss that," said Bob Breck, chief meteorologist at Fox affiliate WVUE-Channel 8 and a feisty competitor for many years.
Breck said he admired Mr. Roberts' independent approach to forecasting big storms.
"I think Nash wasn't afraid to fail. He trusted his instincts and he just followed his gut. I think that's what people remember him for.
"He was just a man who was a giant of the industry."
Even after his retirement from WWL-TV's nightly newscasts in 1984, Mr. Roberts would reappear on Channel 4 whenever a serious storm entered the Gulf of Mexico.
For all those years, you didn't hear the definitive word on where the hurricane would make landfall until you heard it from Nash, standing before his bulletin board with his black felt marker, long after the other TV meteorologists had moved on to high-tech computer-generated images. I can't think of a TV forecaster or reporter working today who inspires the trust of a such vast number of people as Nash did amongst the people on the Gulf Coast.
In July 2001, Mr. Roberts announced his full retirement, setting aside his black markers to care for his ailing wife, Lydia.
"I actually prayed that I would outlive her, so that I could take care of her," Nash told WWL news anchor Angela Hill at the time. "That's how it's working out."
The decision by Nash to step away from the job that he loved to care for the love of his life, demonstrates the character and principles of the man who inspired such trust and admiration in thousands of people.
Mr. Roberts' accurate prediction that Hurricane Georges in 1998 would make landfall east of New Orleans, while all the computer models and other television stations were still insisting Georges would drift to the west, earned him national attention.
I will never forget the evening when the very Bob Breck who is quoted in the article appeared on a rival TV station after Nash predicted Hurricane Georges would make landfall in Biloxi, Mississippi. Breck said, "The storm is not going to Biloxi."
Early the next morning, Breck appeared on TV and said in a strained, squeaky voice, "It certainly looks like it's headed toward the Biloxi area".
May Nash rest in peace and rise in glory as he rejoins Lydia, the love of his life.
