Dick Goddard 1931-2020: A legendary life in Cleveland TV

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Dick Goddard wrapped up an epic 55-year run as a weatherman in 2016. The last 50 of those years were spent at WJW Channel 8. Goddard died Tuesday at the age of 89.

Here is a timeline overview of his life and career:

Feb. 24, 1931: Born in Akron, Ohio.

1931-41: Lives in Akron on Firestone Blvd., the only child of devoted parents.

1941: The Goddard family moves to a small farm in Green.

1949: Graduated from Green High School.

1949-1955: Receives earliest weather training during his stint in the Air Force.

March 1954: Selected for a task group accompanying the Atomic Energy Commission on an H-bomb detonation in the Pacific Islands.

1955: Returns to Akron and begins five-year run with the National Weather Service, working most of that time towards an arts degree at Kent State University.

1960: Receives a fine arts degree from Kent State, thinks about becoming a cartoonist with the Walt Disney Studios.

May 1, 1961: Makes his debut as a TV weatherman on KYW Channel 3 (now WKYC), also making his first memorable slip of the tongue when an attempt to say “croaking frogs” came out “froaking crogs.”

1963: Flies aboard an airplane into the eye of Hurricane Flora.

1965: Agrees to move to Westinghouse’s Philadelphia station as weatherman.

1966: Returns to Cleveland and begins 50-year run at WJW Channel 8. Also begins 32-year run as the football statistician for the Cleveland Browns radio broadcasts.

1973: The first Woolybear Festival in Vermillion.

1989: Tries to say “Tower City Plaza” during the Jerry Lewis Telethon (Tower came out “sour,” and the t came along later.)

1996: His mother, Doris, dies within two weeks of Julie Ann Cashel, his girlfriend for more than 20 years (and whom he described as “the love of my life”).

1998: “Dick Goddard’s Weather Guide for Northeast Ohio” published by Cleveland’s Gray & Company.

2001: Inducted in to the Cleveland Press Club Journalism Hall of Fame, the same year Ohio Magazine names him “Ohio’s Best Meteorologist.”

2004: Divorced from his second wife, Amber, whom he married in December 1997.

2011: A memoir, “Six Inches of Partly Cloudy,” published the same year he celebrates his 80th birthday and 50th year on the air.

2014: At the age of 83, re-ups his contract with Channel 8, signing a new two-year deal. That same year, he is caught in a flash flood near his Medina Township home (he was rescued after placing a 911 call from his car).

May 2016: Having greatly reduced his on-air time as a weather forecaster, Goddard announces he will be stepping down from meteorological duties in November.

May 2016: House Bill 60, dubbed “Goddard’s Law,” passes the Ohio House of Representatives and Ohio Senate with an overwhelming majority. The bill would make it a fifth-degree felony to knowingly cause harm to a companion animal.

June 2016: House Bill 60 signed into law by Gov. John Kasich. It goes into effect on Sept. 13, 2016.

September 2016: Hospitalized after falling at home and fracturing his hip (he continues with rehab and doctors expect him to make a full recovery).

October 2016: Misses his first Woollybear Festival, but Kim, his daughter from his first marriage, fills in for him.

November 2016: Ends his tenure as a weatherman at Channel 8, vows to continue his advocacy for the “four foots” through on-air and personal appearances.

May 2020: His daughter Kimberly posts on Facebook that her father is gravely ill and hospitalized at a medical facility in Florida.

August 4 2020: Goddard dies at the age of 89.

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