This week, IBSS focuses on a familiar face, June Bacon-Bercey. For Black History Month, we briefly touched on the importance of her impact to the field of meteorology but as an important trailblazer we believe she is deserving of a more in depth look at her career.
After becoming the first African American woman to complete a bachelor’s degree in meteorology from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1954, she went on to work at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Weather Service (NOAA NWS) as a weather analyst and forecaster.
The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki while earning her undergraduate’s degree piqued Bacon-Bercey’s interest in the effects of hydrogen and atomic bombs on the earth’s atmosphere, leading her to accept a position as a senior advisor at the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission in 1959. There, she studied the fallout patterns of nuclear detonations.
A few years later Bacon-Bercey moved to New York to rejoin the NWS as a radar meteorologist. In 1971 however, she got a job as the chief station meteorologist at WGR-TV in Buffalo, New York after a brief stint as a new reporter. Just one short year after getting the job, the American Meteorological Society recognized her with their Seal of Approval. She was their first female winner.
In 1976, Bacon-Bercey left on-air meteorology to work again at NOAA as their chief administrator for Television Weather Activities. While working there she worked on other projects, including working as a training officer for the NWS, earning a master’s degree in public administration, and serving on AMS’s Board on Women and Minorities.
June Bacon-Bercey was an big advocate for women and minorities in STEM. In addtion to her work with AMS, she used $68,000 of prize money she won on “The $128,000 Question” to fund a scholarship for young women interested in studying atmospheric science. She also served on the board of directors of the National Consortium for Black Professional Development.
Bacon-Bercey was an advocate and an inspiration but unfortunately in June of 2019 she passed away. She left behind the scholarship she founded that will go on to encourage young students for years to come.
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