Longtime WGN meteorologist Roger Triemstra dies at 92

Longtime Chicago broadcast meteorologist Roger Triemstra has died at the age of 92.

Triemstra, who broadcast WGN forecasts on TV and radio for 33 years, passed away peacefully on Friday. According to the obituary It was posted on the Smits Funeral Home website.

Combining scientific know-how with folk humor in his reports, Triemstra delivers more than 50 Chicago weather forecasts and updates each week, making him one of the Chicago area’s most trusted radio and television personalities. rice field.

“Roger has been a respected, trusted and loved voice at Radio 720, providing reliable weather information and contributing to his unique brand of humor,” WGN Radio 720 said in a tweet.

He grew up in a suburb of Southern Holland and earned an engineering degree from the Illinois Institute of Technology. He served as an Air Force meteorologist during the early days of the Cold War.

Triemstra returned to civic life in Chicago after spending three years flying fighters around the world from his command center in Ohio. According to his obituary, he married Geraldine Triemstra and started a family.

He has worked as an engineer for Amoco Chemicals and Standard Oil, but his love of climate and weather has always been with him. Ultimately, his military projection experience led him to a role on his WLS-TV Channel 7.

He joined WGN-AM and WGN-TV Channel 9 in 1965. In 1982, he became a full-time meteorologist for the radio station. Triemstra he retired in 1998.

At 90, Triemstra became a writer and wrote her memoir, Cooler By The Lake.

His former colleague Tom Skilling, now a meteorologist at WGN, wrote a tribute to Triemstra on Facebook.

“Rog’s had a wonderful life, including a beautiful family. A fascinating and diverse career, not only as a military and broadcast meteorologist, but as an engineer and businessman,” Skilling wrote.

Triemstra has four children, several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.