Mentoring: An Integral Part of the Meteorological Profession

I’ve had some 20 people mentor me during my lifetime. In turn, I’ve mentored numerous other people. And in recent years, some of my mentees have mentored others. This, “paying it forward” approach permeates our profession, quite possibly beyond that of most others. In short, I’m not alone.

While not in my list of mentors, Bob Ryan, in a small way, helped to mentor my wife. Years ago, I urged, cajoled, no, make that pushed, her into giving an educational talk to the AMS Broadcast community. Facing some 200 broadcasters, replete with shaking knees, she delivered. Afterwards, Bob Ryan came up to her and congratulated her on a great talk. That seemingly small “kudo” worked wonders for a trained teacher, but not a honed public speaker.

Bob Ryan has mentored lots of meteorologists, future meteorologists and others during his 40-plus year broadcast career. I’ve interviewed some of these people and propose delivering a testimony to Bob (the past), reflecting on mentoring opportunities offered by the AMS and NWA (present), and pushing for even more mentoring by the meteorological community (future).