Edwin Kessler III

1928 - 2017
Edwin Kessler III, 1928 - 2017

Edwin Kessler III was born in Brooklyn, New York, on December 2, 1928, the oldest of three sons born to Edwin Kessler, Jr. and Marie Rosa Weil.

His childhood was spent in New York. During WW II his mother returned to her native Texas, while his father served overseas, and he graduated from Corpus Christi High School in 1945. Kessler attended Columbia College in New York before enlisting in the U.S. Army. He then returned to Columbia and graduated in 1950. He married his high school classmate, Lottie Catherine Menger, on May 28, 1950.

He then transferred from the Army to the Air Force and moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he attended graduate school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received a doctorate in meteorology in 1958 with a minor in astronomy at Harvard.

In the mid-1950s Kessler was employed in the Weather Radar Branch, Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories, in Massachusetts. During this time their two sons were born, Austin Rainier Kessler and Thomas Russell Kessler. In 1960, Kessler became the Director of the Atmospheric Physics Division at Travelers Research Center in Hartford, Connecticut.

In 1964, Kessler became the first director of the National Severe Storms Laboratory of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In 1965 he appeared on "To Tell the Truth" and introduced NSSL to the public. Serving until he retired in 1986, Kessler was one of the pioneers in the development of Doppler radar, which revolutionized severe storm and tornado forecasting and detection, saving countless lives.

During Kessler's career, he edited three books and authored a monograph of the American Meteorological Society. He was an AMS Fellow and Councilor, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, senior member of the American Society for Aeronautics and Astronautics, Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society, member of Sigma Xi and the American Geophysical Union. He lectured at MIT, Boston University, and McGill University and taught meteorology courses at The University of Oklahoma as an Affiliate Professor from 1964 to 1986.

He authored or coauthored approximately 250 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on radar meteorology, aviation weather, precipitation physics, climatology, alternative energy, foreign trade, agriculture, environment, and politics. He also authored many Letters to the Editor, and numerous reports and essays.

After retirement, Kessler became active in Oklahoma politics, serving as chair and vice chair of Common Cause. He served on the boards of directors of the North American Transportation Institute and the Norman Sustainability Network.

For 25 years the Kesslers lived on a 350 acre farm in central Oklahoma, which they donated to The University of Oklahoma. It is now a focus of activity, principally by the Departments of Botany and Microbiology.

Kessler was predeceased by his wife, Lottie, in 2011, and his brother Jonas in 2016. He is survived by his brother John, two sons, Austin and Thomas, four grandchildren, two great grandchildren, and numerous cousins. He was greatly admired and loved, and he will be sorely missed.