September 2000

Random Profile: Rich Wagoner

Every other month, Staff Notes Monthly spotlights a stochastically chosen staff member. This month we profile Rich Wagoner, deputy director for program development of RAP.

Rich Wagoner. (Photo by Carlye Calvin.)

How he ended up at NCAR:

"John basically stole me." John McCarthy, the founding director of RAP, hired Rich away from NOAA in 1992. Rich had already been in Boulder for three years as a "tech transfer cheerleader," helping to launch three initiatives: the COMET program, the NCAR aviation weather program (part of RAP), and the Local Data Acquisition and Dissemination System, a data-exchange tool of the National Weather Service.

Why Boulder?

In 1983, Rich took a plum job at NWS headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, where he served as head of the Operations Division. Among other things associated with NWS modernization plans, "I wrote the original white papers and proposals for COMET. It was a very painful birth. It took most of the rest of the 1980s to get COMET sold, but finally we convinced the community it was a good thing to do." Rich left Silver Spring in 1989 to take another NOAA position in Boulder. "I was given the opportunity to come out here and implement the very things I had envisioned and proposed." Now, at RAP, "I have absolutely the perfect job. It uses all of my skills and experience, it's incredibly challenging, and it's fun."

Formative event of his youth:

The 1957 Dallas tornado. Rich was a ninth grader in the suburb of Garland, "a typical Texas town. I was going to be an astronomer, but I got sidetracked by the tornado. I got up on the garage to try to see it. Of course, the clouds were too low and the tornado too far away. Our science teacher took us to the site and showed us the damage, then we spent several weeks analyzing the weather maps associated with the storm. I was pretty well convinced by tenth grade that [meteorology] was what I wanted to do."

Times have changed:

Rich got his bachelor's and master's degrees in meteorology at Texas A&M University. "When I first went there it was still an all-male, military-oriented school." Upon going back to College Station a few years ago, he found that the rest of the world had made inroads. "I couldn't believe it. It was such an extraordinarily different place." As an undergrad in the early 1960s, he summered at the National Severe Storms Laboratory, writing FORTRAN programs for Roger Lhermitte, Stan Barnes, and other researchers.

Typhoon Central:

Joining the Navy between his bachelor's and master's degrees, Rich found himself stationed in 1969 at the Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Guam. The JTWC handled typhoon forecasts for the western Pacific Ocean; it now covers the South Pacific and the Indian Ocean as well. "Sometimes there were as many as five typhoons at once, so you could be very busy. Everything was plotted and analyzed by hand for the whole Pacific. That was right at the transition time—I got to watch the numerical models being implemented. It was a hell of a learning experience for a green meteorologist trying to find a niche." Rich also got the rare chance to work with then-classified military satellite photos, which featured far greater resolution than the fuzzy facsimile images from civilian satellites: "You could even see the lights of our island." The training paid off with a position back on the mainland interpreting satellite images for what would soon become the National Environmental Satellite Data Information Service (NESDIS).

One of his favorite mentors:

Richard Hallgren, NWS director and later executive director of the American Meteorological Society. "Dick is one of the most visionary people I've run into. He taught me two important lessons: big initiatives take a long time, so patience is required; and you need to put yourself in the shoes of all of the potential participants and analyze things from their perspectives."

Most fascinating two weeks of his life:

Serving as chief forecaster for the Voyager mission. This two- person aircraft set a world record from 14 to 23 December 1986 by circling the globe without stopping or refueling. "It was a meteorological nightmare to vector that aircraft around the world because it was sensitive to everything, but it was about the most fun thing I've ever done." With guidance from Rich and his weather team, copilots Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager (no relation to famed pilot Chuck) made it through the first 90% of their circumnavigation without encountering any headwinds.

Toughest work-related challenge:

Dealing with RAP's dark days of 1993. "We were almost 100% FAA funded at the time. If you were putting your personal portfolio together, you wouldn't rely on one stock." When FAA passed on its own budget cuts, the program was socked with a shortfall that resulted in several RAP positions being lost. "Laying off people that year was the hardest thing I ever had to do." Today, RAP is thriving, with 130 staff and a budget of more than $17 million. "We're very diversified—we now have five key applications areas instead of one."

Favorite Friday-night pastime:

Setting sail under starry skies. NOAA colleague John McGinley introduced Rich to sailing at Nebraska's Lake McConaughy six years ago. The bug bit, and now Rich keeps a 25-foot keelboat at Carter Lake. "I can slip up there and do night sailing really easily." He's captained several large charter boats in the Caribbean, and he'd like to do a "real blue-water cruise" someday (a multiweek trip with only ocean between the starting and ending points). Rich and his wife, Sher Wagoner (Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere), enjoy time with their four children and four grandkids.

On his bookshelf:

"Most of my reading these days is focused on sailing. I just finished the 18-volume Patrick O'Brien series." The historical novelist replicates the adventures and lingo of the 18th century British navy. He illuminates their cuisine, too. Rich now knows how to make "spotted dog pudding": mix up some sugar, suet, and raisins.

• BH