Notes:
The Easton Express, Saturday, Dec 31, 1966, Page 1
W.S. Brotzman, 90, Dies
Native of Easton Was Weather Expert IN Pittsburgh And Former I-R Employee
William Sylvester Brotzman, 90, a native of the Easton area who became one of the nation's best known weather forecasted, died yesterday in a nursing home at Chicora, Butler County.
Mr. Brotzman was a Pittsburgh Institution for 31 years, and his "battles" with "Donald Dingbat," a Wood Woodpecker" type of cartoon-character in the Pittsburgh Press were famous. Mr. Brotzman name appeared on the front page of the Pittsburgh papers more often than any other man in Pittsburgh history because "Donny's" cartoon was a front-page feature almost daily.
Mr. Brotzman liked the cartoon character because he felt it made more people read the weather forecasts, and to his way of thinking that was good business.
Although Mr. Brotzman's predictions as head weatherman at Pittsburgh were 80 per cent right, he still found out when he retired in 1946 that he was remembered most for his "wrong prediction" on the St. Patrick's Day flood in 1936.
Like other weathermen in Pennsylvania and nearby states, Mr. Brotzman was plagued with a lot of "Bad Weather" that year - heavy snowfalls, continued periods of cold weather, that retarded the melting of snow, and then "the rains came." and the rains in March of 1935 didn't know hen to stop. The result was that the rain and warmer weather which accompanied it, turned all the snow and ice on the mountains into water and the resulting runoff flooded many areas in the state.
To complicate matters for Mr. Brotzman, who had to do his prediction for the Allegheny, the Monongahela and the Ohio River valleys, weather stations were washed out, a water gauge on the Conemaugh River stuck and Brotzman added, one of his aides made a faulty depth report when he took a reading.
Based on the data he had, Brotzman predicted the flood at "The Point" in Pittsburgh would reach a crest of 34 feet.
But the rain kept coming and the ice and snow kept melting and when the Ohio reached its crest it was 46 feet, 12 more than had been predicted. But Mr. Brotzman was not alone in misery - the crests on other river sin the state were well above the levels predicted by other forecasters.
Mr. Brotzman admitted he made wrong predictions at time and he even enjoyed some of his mistakes and laughed at them with others in his forecasting area. Once, he like to recall, he predicted "light snow flurries" and the next morning found himself snowbound at his home, Brookside Farms, near Pittsburgh.
Brotzman said during his retirement he could forecast rain in the corn on his left foot ached.
When he retired, he quipped to friends he wasn't really retiring, "Just getting in out of the weather."
He moved to a farm at Worthington, Armstrong County, where he raised chickens and pigs. He kept busy in the winter months making furniture.
Mr. Brotzman originally worked as a machinist at the Ingersoll-Rand Co, Phillipsburg and because this fact became know to many through interviews published in Pittsburgh papers at intervals, "complainer" at times would call him and tell him he should go back to the mill.
Mr. Brotzman got into weather forecasting because he wanted to help friend, who planned to change jobs.
Mr. Brotzman and the friend studied meteorology and, when time came for the civil service test in 1906, the friend urged Brotzman to go along to Philadelphia to take the examination. Mr. Brotzman passed when the mills closed during a depression 1907, Mr. Brotzman accepted a weather bureau job in Montgomery, Ala., and was launched on his career. He was moved to Pittsburgh in 1915 and became head of the bureau there in 1923 and returned in 1946.
Mr. Brotzman was born in Williams Township, a son of the late Edwin and Anna Hahn Brotzman.
Survivors include his widow, Lenoir Stewart Brotzman, a son Lloyd, Rockville Center, N.Y., a weatherman at LaGuardia Airport; three daughters, Mrs. Joseph Kavel, Philadelphia, Mrs. Robert Boedecker, Sudbury, Mass, and Mrs. Neil Kanagy, Albuquerque, N.M. ; a sister, Mrs. Thomas Lippey, Easton; two brothers, John, Philadelphia, and Earl, Easton.
Services will be held at 2 p.m. Monday at Worthington, Armstrong County. Burial will be in the Country Cemetery, at Elders Ridge.
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