Remembering Dr. Ira Geer: Reflections from the AMS Community

In this talk, AMS Education Associate Director and longtime staff member Beth Mills will share her reflections on Dr. Ira Geer, followed by insights from Dr. Edward Hopkins, Ira's close friend and longtime AMS collaborator.

Beth first met Dr. Ira Geer in 1993 when she was a high school sophomore, and the AMS Education office was in its early stages, located on K Street in Washington, DC. Ira offered her valuable guidance on the field of meteorology and connected her with Ron Gird at the National Weather Service Headquarters in Silver Spring. This connection led to Beth interning with the NWS for six summers. While in graduate school, Beth reconnected with Bernard Blair and Ira, which resulted in another meeting at the AMS office and an eventual job offer. Beth fondly remembers Ira's humble nature, creativity, his ability to foster an atmosphere of hard work, respect for staff and the educators in their network, all while having fun doing meaningful work in Earth Science education. Despite his many contributions to the field, Ira never sought the spotlight, and the AMS staff had to "insist" on celebrating his service when the time came.

The first formal meeting between Ed Hopkins and Ira Geer at the 75^th annual AMS meeting in Dallas, TX marked the start of a 28-year friendship. Ira was aware of Ed’s Resource listing for weather/climate instruction that he produced for K-12 teachers in southern Wisconsin. Ira received favorable comments about Ed from Joe Moran, who was spending a sabbatical at the AMS office in Washington, DC working on the DataStreme Atmosphere project that was to begin in spring 1996. Going through Joe, Ira asked Ed to help work on an updated glossary of weather terms for the teacher participants. During that spring, Ed helped organize and edit a 272-page Glossary of common meteorological and related oceanic and hydrologic terms that was published in 1996 and used for years by the participants in the DataStreme courses. Ira began looking for help from Ed beginning when the annual AMS Summer Teacher Training Session was held at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences in July 1995, during a deadly heat wave. Since Ed was a member of the department as a graduate student and lecturer for more than 20 years at that time, he was able to calmly make arrangements to help keep the participants as comfortable as possible – a feat that impressed Ira. The relationship between Ira and Ed was cemented when Ira called Ed in December 1995 to ask if someone could write a daily national weather summary for the teachers in the DataStreme program. Since Ed had experience teaching high school science, this request posed no problem. For the next 20 years, Ed wrote daily weather summaries for an appreciative audience that included Ira. As time went on, Ed became the editor for the Weekly Water News, then the Weekly Ocean News and Weekly Climate News for the DataStreme courses. At the start and end of each semester, Ira would call Ed in Wisconsin to have a friendly chat. During the last several years of Ira’s life, Ed would do the calling each semester, which pleased Ira greatly.

These reflections, while a handful of many that can be shared, provide insight into Dr. Ira Geer’s professional life and legacy.