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Roger Triemstra was a trusted radio and TV broadcaster, delivering more than 50 forecasts and updates of Chicago weather each week on WGN television and radio.
Sun-Times archives
Longtime Chicago broadcast meteorologist Roger Triemstra has died at the age of 92.
Triemstra, who delivered forecasts for WGN on television and radio for 33 years, passed away peacefully Friday, according to an obituary posted on the Smits Funeral Home website.
Triemstra blended scientific know-how with folksy humor in his reports, delivering more than 50 forecasts and updates on Chicago’s weather each week, and becoming one of the most trusted radio and television personalities in the Chicago area.
“Roger was a respected, trusted and beloved voice on Radio 720, providing credible weather information and contributing his unique brand of humor,” WGN Radio 720 said in a tweet.
He was raised in south suburban South Holland and earned an engineering degree from the Illinois Institute of Technology. He served as a meteorologist for the Air Force during the early years of the Cold War.
After spending three years guiding warplanes around the world from a command center in Ohio, Triemstra returned to civilian life in Chicago. He married Geraldine Triemstra and started a family, according to his obituary.
He worked as an engineer for Amoco Chemical and Standard Oil, but his love of climate and weather were always with him. Eventually, his military forecasting experience led him to fill-in roles at WLS-TV Channel 7.
He joined WGN-AM and WGN-TV Channel 9 in 1965. In 1982, he became full-time meteorologist for the radio station. Triemstra retired in 1998.
Triemstra became an author at the age of 90, writing a memoir titled “Cooler By The Lake.”
His former colleague and current WGN meteorologist Tom Skilling wrote a tribute to Triemstra on Facebook.
“Rog’s was a wonderful life which included a beautiful family — and a fascinating and varied career as a military and broadcast meteorologist but also as an engineer and businessman,” Skilling wrote.
Triemstra is survived by four children, several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.