‘He’s done a tremendous service … for the nation and the world:’ Tom Skilling respected by scientists across the nation
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From national laboratories to the National Weather Service, Tom Skilling’s expertise is admired and respected by giants in science — those here in Chicago and all across the nation.
In the mid-1960s, the Chicago Weather Bureau sent daily weather maps to two locations — Argonne National Laboratory and a 14-year-old in Aurora, Illinois: Tom Skilling.
Seth Darling is with Argonne National Laboratory.
“On one hand we’re talking about an individual, on the other hand we’re talking about a massive national laboratory that’s been here for more than 75 years,” he said.
The 14-year-old who sent self-addressed envelopes to the Chicago Weather Bureau grew up to walk among the esteemed scientists at Argonne National Laboratory.
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“I know plenty of people in my world that have that tremendous depth,” Darling said. “I live in a world of science and technology. Tom has that depth but there are so few people who are able to communicate to folks who don’t also have that depth about the topic. And that is really something that makes Tom special.”
Mike Bardou is a National Weather Service Chicago warning coordination meteorologist and a former WGN intern.
“(Skilling is) Just an incredible example for me back then as a 20-something-year-old kid back then figuring out my professional aspirations,” he said.
In a room full of forecasters at the National Weather Service office in Chicago, Skilling’s influence runs deep.
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Kevin Doom is a National Weather Center Chicago meteorologist and a former WGN intern.
“He’s a big reason I wanted to become a meteorologist,” he said. “Interning with Skilling was a surreal moment especially being a meteorologist from Chicago. It doesn’t get better than that.”
The collective minds represented at Fermilab stand tall at the nation’s sole particle physics laboratory. And so does a local considered a fellow scientist and friend.
“We are so proud to call Tom a fellow scientist,” Fermilab laboratory director Lia Merminga said. “He started his seminars back in 1981. He was giving seminars on severe weather reports and tornadoes, in the Ramsey auditorium, and they were attended. It was standing room only by hundreds of people. So he has had an amazing impact to our Fermilab employees and our community as a whole.”
Eric Lenning is the meteorologist in charge at NWS Chicago.
“Predicting the future is tough. Predictions are tough, let alone when it comes to an unevenly spinning ball,” he said. “He can nail the science. He can nail the forecast. And he can communicate it in a way that people actually understand.”
Classmates at the University of Wisconsin Madison saw that talent early on.
“Once he got something nobody in the room, could articulate it the way he could, and we still marvel at that 40 years later,” former National Weather Service director Louis Uccellini said.
“The impact is profound. And I don’t think you can measure it at all levels from a scientific level, a public safety level preparedness and just a general weather awareness level,” Bardou said. “I don’t know that there’s a more common name than Tom Skilling in the weather world honestly.”
When Tom’s parents Betty and Tom were asked, “What do you hope Chicago remembers about Tom Skilling?” they said:
“Just what he’s doing … a nice young man who loved what he was doing. … He always hopes that he can help somebody the way people helped him. …He also is grateful for being accepted at WGN.”
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