DR. NEIL FRANK TO ADDRESS ROTARY CLUB OF WASHINGTON COUNTY
Dr. Neil Frank, former Director of the National Hurricane Center and former KHOU-TV Chief Meteorologist,
will address the Rotary Club of Washington County Thursday at noon. Dr. Frank’s topic will be “Is Man-made Global Warming a Hoax?” The public is invited to attend the event at Cannery Kitchen, 314 East Alamo Street in Brenham. Event attendees who desire to eat lunch should check-in at the Rotary table just inside the dining hall. Cost for the buffet lunch is $10.00.
Dr. Frank retired as Director of the National Hurricane Center in 1987 to accept the position of Chief Meteorologist at Houston’s CBS Television affiliate KHOU-TV. In June 2008, he retired for the second time and is currently living in the Houston area.
Neil started out in life to have a career in sports. In 1949, he enrolled at Southwestern College, Kansas, to play basketball and eventually become a basketball coach. In his second year on campus the Head of the Science Department persuaded Neil to major in science and become a science teacher/basketball coach. Upon graduation Neil found the Air Force was looking for science majors to enter their weather program and this was the beginning of his career in meteorology.
In 1955 the Air Force assigned Neil to Okinawa where he received a dramatic introduction to the tropics. The first summer he was on the island, Okinawa experienced three typhoons. The last one was the most intense and blew down all the anemometers when the winds exceeded 160 mph.
Leaving the Air Force in 1957, Neil decided to pursue a career in tropical meteorology. He enrolled in the graduate school at Florida State University where he earned a Master’s Degree and Ph.D. in meteorology. Neil joined the National Weather Service in 1961 and was designated a Hurricane Forecaster in the newly formed National Hurricane Center in 1968.
Dr. Frank has published over 40 papers and written numerous articles for popular publications. He has been featured in such national publications as National Geographic, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Time, Newsweek, People magazine, and Southern Living magazine. While Director of NHC, he was a regular guest on NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CBS Morning News, The Larry King Show, CNN and all of the Evening News Shows. He was a consultant for CBS while at KHOU in Houston. In addition, almost every local newspaper, radio and television station in the coastal areas from Texas to Maine has run stories about Neil.
Neil married his childhood sweetheart Velma in 1952. They have three grown children, ten grandchildren and two great grandchildren.