For 36 years NewsChannel 5 viewers know Ron Howes as the poised, passionate and profound chief meteorologist, but when the cameras turn away the Ron Howes we all know and love truly shines.
“Is this my agent? Ya I need a 25% raise or I'm quitting this place! Friends have you ever felt backed into a corner?” Ron could be heard saying in a promotional out take clip from 1984.
“Ron is deceptively quiet and withdrawn,” says former NewsChannel 5 anchor Chris Clark.
Deceptive, that is how we know Ron, he’s like a cloud full of one liners - waiting to burst.
“You look at him and you would never think this guy is a serious scientist,” Clark says jokingly.
“He has a great laugh, great smile and he is hysterical,” recalls Amy Marsalis who anchored NewsChannel 5 at 10 p.m. alongside of Ron for a decade.
It is that smile and that laugh and that sense of humor that have made him not just a great coworker over the years but a great friend.
“We're gonna miss this comradery and I think it was almost therapeutic,” says NewsChannel 5 anchor Vicki Yates.
Vicki has called him a friend for 26 years. Two decades and some change sitting next to one another every night.
“I've been with him for 26 years, there's a comfort with being with him for 26 years,” she adds about her close friend and colleague.
“He has a razor sharp wit about him. It's very subtle. Almost like British wit,” Chris Clark says.
“If you're a duck you might like the weather!” Ron said one evening during a newscast in the late 1980’s.
And there's something else you may not know about the chief meteorologist with a razor sharp wit. His hands don't just construct the forecast.
“A lot of folks don't know that he great at wood working he can make fantastic furniture. He has that as something that will keep him occupied,” Clarks adds.
“There's just something about Ron that nobody else has,” Vicki added.
You will miss the man who delivers the forecast each night, as for us we'll miss the man we consider a friend.
