 EISENHOOD, WILLIAM OGDEN Bill was born June 28, 1943 in Vallejo, CA to Ogden and Margaret Eisenhood. He grew up in Santa Rosa, CA and loved the San Francisco area, which he returned to regularly throughout his life. He enlisted in the Air Force, was accepted to OTS, and, as he loved to tell, requested to attend [school] to study [math?]--the Air Force sent him to Penn State to study meteorology. He ended up loving meteorology, working first as a forecaster for the USAF then for a cloud seeding company in Alaska. With his great radio voice and talent for speaking off the cuff, he was a natural to earn a spot as a TV weatherman at a station in Fort Wayne, IN. He spent three years there before landing the position at KOB-TV in Albuquerque, where he wanted to return. He worked at KOB from 1976-1996. He loved forecasting the weather, he loved explaining the science of it, and he loved winter storms. He was known as "Blizzard Bill" at Taos, his favorite ski area, since they knew they could count on him to be excited about snow. He also spent many years broadcasting from the Balloon Fiesta. His sense of humor made watching the weather fun and he enjoyed hundreds of visits to classrooms to spread his joy about the weather to children. He had two more sons with his second wife Caroline. They enjoyed traveling, camping, and attending Lobo and Isotopes games together. He was an avid Giants and 49ers fan and attended games as often as possible. Bill was a great cook, loved baking bread and growing vegetables, and always had a yard full of flowers. In his 30's he learned to play the piano and to ski. In his 50's he bought a motorcycle and took many road trips with his great friend Steve Andrews. He loved to read and was always well-informed about politics, world news, and sports. Bill could be hilarious and charming, had a warm and generous heart, loved his boys, but had some inner struggles. He lost his job at KOB after a well-publicized DWI. He suffered bouts of depression and struggled with addictions, but continued to be enthusiastic about many things, including his three beloved boys. He worked for a time for an ignition interlock company, helping the community with reducing DWI incidents, and briefly got back onto TV as a weekend weatherman for KRQE. For many years Bill was a games dealer at several local casinos, becoming a skilled craps dealer. He was retired at the time of his death. He is survived by his sons Sam of Seattle, Charlie of New York City, Thomas of New Orleans, and his sister Joan Wells of Tiburon, CA. He would like to be remembered, as he would say, as a "swell guy." Daniels Family Funeral Services 7601 Wyoming Blvd NE Albuquerque,NM 87109 (505) 821-0010
|
