The Observer, May 2007
Volunteer Profile: Retired meteorologist volunteers weather wisdom
By SUSAN SOMMER
Project Manager
What do a charter boat captain, an award-winning meteorologist, a taxi driver, and a pizza deliveryman have in common? Everything, if you’re Dave Goldstein. He’s done all that and more.
Dave, a member of the council’s Oil Spill Prevention and Response Committee, says he didn’t just retire from the National Weather Service after more than 35 years, he retired to his current career as owner and operator of Whittier-based Prince William Sound Eco-Charters. Dave had already been chartering clients in his free time for salmon and halibut in Prince William Sound. Turning that into a full-time endeavor seemed a natural extension.
(ECO-TOURISM: Retired meterologist Dave Goldstein now runs an eco-tourism business in Prince William Sound. He also serves on the council’s Oil Spill Prevention and Response Committee. Photo courtesy of Dave Goldstein)
Dave is friends with Pete and Marilynn Heddell, who serve, respectively, on the prevention and response committee and on the council board. They suggested Dave’s background in weather might be beneficial to the Oil Spill Prevention and Response Committee, or OSPR, and suggested he contact the council about joining.
Volunteering with OSPR gives Dave the opportunity to help prevent spills in a region he calls home and from which he now makes his living. He was working a midnight shift in the Anchorage Forecast Office the night the Exxon Valdez grounded. During the response, Dave provided weather information to the people involved. Not long after the citizens’ council was formed, his office began receiving The Observer. He followed the council’s efforts for several years before joining OSPR last year.
The committee focuses on reducing the size and frequency of oil spills, as well as reducing the harm they cause.
Dave’s experience in Alaska weather forecasting provides valuable input for committee actions and recommendations, as his career frequently involved forecasting wind and sea conditions, obstructions to visibility such as fog and snow, icing conditions due to freezing spray and even sea ice conditions.
Dave says making accurate forecasts, mentoring younger employees, and traveling Alaska were highlights of that job. He got a bachelor’s degree in meteorology from Penn State University in 1970 and started on a master’s in the same field. Before he finished, the National Weather Service offered him a position, and he worked for that agency in Washington, D.C., his birthplace, for several years.
In 1974, he moved to Fairbanks as lead forecaster. He finished his weather service career as the Anchorage office’s first warning coordination meteorologist, or liaison between the National Weather Service and all user groups including local governments, state organizations, federal agencies, private and public groups, schools, and other organizations. Along the way, he helped establish the popular “Alaska Weather” show, which airs every night on public television.
Dave received numerous awards during his career as a meteorologist, including the National Weather Association “Outstanding Meteorologist” award in 1984 as recognition for a job well done while monitoring unusually destructive flooding in Kotzebue.
Family is central in Dave’s life. He lives with his wife, Bonnie, in a condo in Whittier. His daughter, Michelle, and her family are nearby in Anchorage. And his step-daughters and their families live in the Lower 48 but return to Alaska nearly every year.
Besides family, Dave spends time on fishing, hiking, boating, exercise, wildlife watching, and travel.
“I enjoy helping others,” he says. “I enjoy working to make my small community a better place to live in and visit.”
Besides volunteering with the citizens’ council, his efforts include participation in national and local Whittier-based groups.
Prince William Sound Eco-Charters, established in 2000, offers not only the usual trips for fishing, sightseeing, and photography, but also kayak hauling, transportation to off-the-beaten-path coves to hike or camp, and custom trips.
Two trips stand out as special memories for Dave.
The first involved a paraplegic man who had just graduated from high school and had dreamed since childhood of going fishing. Dave was unsure of how this would work on his 24-foot boat, the Chinook, but decided to give it a try. The family caught their limit of halibut, watched humpbacks breach, and saw several pods of killer whales, as well as puffins and cormorants. Several weeks later, Dave received a heartfelt letter of gratitude from the family.
Another memorable trip involved an older couple. The husband was ill, and the wife wanted to take him on one last fishing trip. Rain and choppy seas did not hinder catching fish, though, and the others on board paid special attention to the ailing man.
At the end of the charter, the wife pressed a bill into Dave’s hand and bid farewell. Thinking this was a customary tip of $10 or $20, he tucked it into his pocket without looking. Later that day he realized it was a $100 bill, so he contacted the woman and asked if she had made a mistake; if so, he said, he’d gladly return the money. She replied that she knew exactly what she gave him, and wanted to thank him from the bottom of her heart for the wonderful experience they’d had.
Dave says it reminded him of what someone had said about running a charter business—that he might not make a lot of money, but he would make a lot of friends.