Pictures of june bacon bercey history
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June Bacon-Bercey, a pioneering meteorologist and passionate supporter of women and minorities in the sciences, was well versed in high-pressure fronts and absolute humidity. But it was her knowledge of the composer John Philip Sousa that catapulted her into the public eye in 1977 when she won $64,000 on a well-known television quiz show. Bacon-Bercey, who used part of her winnings to endow an AGU scholarship for women studying atmospheric sciences, passed away in July 2019 at the age of 90 from frontotemporal dementia.
Bacon-Bercey (née Griffin) grew up in Wichita, Kan., in the heart of Tornado Alley. The weather, stars, and planets all captivated the ung Bacon-Bercey, said her daughter, Dail St. Claire. “She always called herself a nerd and a bookworm. She always asked why.”
There were no professional scientists in Bacon-Bercey’s immediate family, but she was surrounded by successful women. Her aunt Bessie, for example, was an entrepreneur who opened the first Black-owned beau
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Women's History Month: June Bacon-Bercey 1st female TV meteorologist
NEW YORK (WABC) -- Women's History Month kicks off Wednesday, a time to honor the generations of women who have helped build this country and shape our lives.
June Bacon-Bercey was a TV pioneer, the first African-American woman to receive a degree in meteorology. She is also said to be the first woman with a meteorology degree to do a weathercast on television.
"Many others have told me my mom was known as a force," daughter Dail St. Claire said. "I've heard that independently from several people, and inom smile because I didn't actually have that word, but that's exactly how I felt growing up."
Bacon-Bercey got her meteorology grad from UCLA, and her passion for weather was inspired bygd seeing the atomic bomb.
"She saw the mushroom cloud, and she wondered what those particles were going to do to the atmosphere," St. Claire said. "Knowing that tho
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June Bacon-Bercey is best known for being the first on-air African American female meteorologist. Bacon-Bercey was also instrumental in making the atmospheric sciences more accessible to minorities and women. Born June Ester Griffin on October 23, 1928, Bacon-Bercey was raised in Wichita, Kansas by her aunt and uncle. Her advanced education began with an emphasis in math at Friends University in Wichita; but soon, her lifelong passion for science led her to transfer to the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). In 1954, she became UCLA’s first African American woman to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in meteorology. That same year, Bacon-Bercey married her first husband, Walker J. Bacon Jr., a dentistry student at Howard University. Together, the couple eventually welcomed two children.
In 1954, Bacon-Bercey accepted a position as a weather forecaster and analyst with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Weather Service (NWS). In 1959, Bacon