Melvin Goldstein - Director Emeritus of Meteorological Studies
Mel Goldstein is known as "Dr. Mel" to hundreds of thousands of television viewers, radio listeners, and newspaper readers. He has been studying weather all his life. He started a meteorology club when he was just in the 8th grade, and decades later, the club is still in existence. He went on to receive a B.S. degree in meteorology from Penn State University, and then M.S. and Ph. D. degrees in meteorology from New York University. In 1970, he began teaching at Western Connecticut State University where he developed the Weather Center, and established the first and only baccalaureate degree program in meteorology in Connecticut. He developed a severe storm prediction index which is used by numerous electric utilities across the country. He has been a consultant to a number of large firms such as IBM, Union carbide, General Electric, Detroit Edison, Philadelphia Electric, Northeast Utilities, and United Illuminating. Dr. Mel's media career began soon after he started teaching in 1970. He started on a single local radio station and by 1976, his broadcasts were on dozens of radio stations across the country. At that time, he began doing television weather. In the 1980s, his forecasts were seen nationwide on the Satellite News Channel, an all-news cable effort of ABC and Westinghouse. He became chief meteorologist at WTNH-TV, Connecticut's ABC affiliate in 1986 where he is now seen doing the morning and noon forecasts. Also, in 1986, he began writing a daily column, "Weatherwords" for the Hartford Courant, Connecticut's largest daily newspaper. The column has been running uninteruptedly, 7-days a week.
Dr. Mel has received a number of awards, including the President's Medal at Western Connecticut State University for his years of teaching and community service, the Connecticut Bloomer Award for his contributions to the State of Connecticut, and a nomination for an Emmy for a series of education vignettes about the weather. In addition, he has received Honorary Doctorate Degrees from Albertus Magnus College and Mitchell College, and he has received the President's Award from Quinnipiac University. For each of the past two years, Dr. Mel has been voted Connecticut's best television weatherperson in a reader's poll of Connecticut Magazine. He has begun a foundation for research into multiple myeloma, bone marrow cancer, at the Yale School of medicine. Dr. Mel is battling this form of incurable cancer, and his proceeds from the Complete Idiot's Guide to weather have been donated to that fund. He has served as a director on several boards, including the Connecticut Academy for Education, the Long Island Sound Foundation, and the Ronald McDonald House.
When he is not predicting the weather and telling people about it, Dr. Mel can be found playing jazz on his piano at his home overlooking Long Island Sound. He lives in Guilford with his wife Arlene. They were married as undergraduates at Penn State in 1965. They have two daughters, Laura and Melodie. Laura practices law in Danbury, and Melodie holds a degree in journalism and English and is working in publishing.
He says, "The weather belongs to all of us. It is very democratic. All we need to do is look upward and learn." And for anyone needing good weather for that outdoor wedding or graduation, he says, good-naturally, "Just remember, I am in prediction not production."
