June Bacon-Bercey
October 23, 1932 – July 3, 2019
Radar, Aviation, Meteorology, and Weather
Meteorologist
Scientist, an international expert on weather and aviation and nuclear science. She was the first female television meteorologist in the United States. She was both the first woman and the first African-American granted the “seal of approval” for excellence in television weather casting by the American Meteorological Society.
June Bacon was born on October 23, 1932, in Wichita, Kansas. She was the only child. Her father was an attorney and her mother was a music teacher. She attended the University of California in Los Angeles, where she majored in math and meteorology. She graduated with top honors from the University of California, Los Angeles, B.S., 1954 and then her MS. 1955. Her further education went to the enrollment to the University of Southern California where she obtained her M.P.A. in 1979. She married George W. Brewer they had two daughters.
June Bacon-Bercey was the only African-American woman who earned a degree in meteorology in the 1950s during the civil rights. She became the first female television meteorologist in the country by assuming the position of weather caster in Buffalo, New York, in 1970. Two years later she was honored as the first African American and the first woman to earn the American Meteorological Society’s Seal of Approval for excellence in television weather casting. In 1979 became Chief Administrator of television activities for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA). June also had positions working for the National Weather Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency. . Bacon-Bercey has worked in research, forecasting, weather casting, and public affairs and has also been active in professional associations, including the American Meteorological Society Board on Women and Minorities, of which she is a founding member. Bacon-Bercey retired and became a consultant and an educator, dedicating much of her time encouraging women and minorities to pursue degrees and careers in meteorology.
Bacon-Bercey died under hospice care in Burlingame, California, from frontotemporal dementia on July 3, 2019, at the age of 90. Her death was announced six months later.
Awards:
Bacon-Bercey was the first woman, as well as the first African-American, to be awarded the American Meteorological Society’s Seal of Approval for excellence in television weather casting when she was working at WGR in Buffalo, New York, in the 1970s.
In 2000, she was honored during a three-day conference at Howard University for her contributions including: helping to establish a meteorology lab at Jackson State University in Mississippi, her endowment of the scholarship, and her work in California’s public schools. Bacon-Bercey was also named a Minority Pioneer for Achievement in Atmospheric Sciences by NASA
Seal of Approval, American Meteorological Society, 1972; Certificate of Recognition for Sustained Superior Performance, NÒAA, 1982-84; Outstanding Contribution to Furthering the Mission of NOAA, NOAA, 1984-92; Minority Pioneer for Achievements in Atmospheric Sciences, National Science Foundation and National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2000; World’s Who’s Who of Women, Certificate of Merit.
A LEADER AND TRAILBLAZER .