HIS IS A CAREER INSPIRED BY A blizzard and the Boeing Superfortress. Teenager Bill Walsh was riveted watching TV weathermen assess the massive 1978 winter storm that delivered record snow and ice to his Pawtucket, Rhode Island, hometown and brought the Northeastern U.S. to a standstill. In the viewing, he saw his future career clearly. Similarly, thanks to his father's stories about his time as a B-29 flight engineer, young Walsh was certain aviation would be part of his life, too. Graduating with a mass communications/meteorology double major, the engaging lad quickly found work as an on-camera weatherman; today he's an Emmy-winning chief meteorologist at the CBS affiliate in Charleston, South Carolina. A private pilot at 16, he served as a Navy and then Air Force Reserve officer, where his public affairs duties included narrating show performances by military aircraft crews and special ops paracommandos. But when informed his next assignment would be a desk job, Lt. Col. Walsh chose to retire after 23 years as a weekend warrior.
展开▼
