“And that completes, for me, 38 years of school visits.”

Those were the words of KDKA-TV meteorologist Dennis Bowman as he wrapped up his final weather assembly program April 15 at Curtisville Primary Center in the Deer Lakes School District.

April 17 was Bowman's final day giving television weather reports to the Pittsburgh region as he's retired after 43 years of forecasting.

While a member of the Pittsburgh broadcast media for nearly 27 years, Bowman says he's visited 2,000 different school buildings with presentations to 600,000 kids in 11 states and the District of Columbia.

“It was 1976 when I started this,” Bowman says.

His program includes props such as a tornado machine that simulates a twister using a hot plate, a hair dryer and a block of dry ice. But the real star of the show has been a puppet — Chester Drawers.

Chester came on the scene in 1975 when Bowman became fascinated with ventriloquism while working in St. Joseph. Mo., for KQTV.

“I saw a guy perform and talked to him after the show,” Bowman recalls. “He told me about books and records to buy and the six main sounds that are the base.”

Curtisville Principal Jennifer Cavalancia enjoyed Bowman's last program as much as the students.

“I'm very excited for the staff and the kids,” says Cavalancia, a Belle Vernon native in her third year at Curtisville. “Mr. Bowman puts a lot of work into it and we were eager to see the students share in the same program.”

“It was very good and the puppet was very funny,” says second-grader Logan Goldsmith, 8, of West Deer. “That tornado project was amazing. I liked how the air was getting pushed up by the fan.”

Bowman first became interested in weather as a child growing up in Kansas City, Kan., when he got a book, “Science in Your Own Back Yard.”

“It showed how to make weather instruments in your own backyard,” Bowman says. “I made my own barometer.”

His broadcast career started in Joplin, Mo., as an afternoon drive radio host. When the morning television man left, Bowman took over. His duties included the noon weather forecasts. But on May 11, 1973, a tornado struck the station, knocking it off the air.

“I was all by myself,” Bowman says. “I jumped under a desk and got a fear, fascination and respect for the weather. Then I started getting job offers.”

He worked in Evansville, Ind., and Syracuse, N.Y. before beginning a 16-year stint at WPXI in Pittsburgh. Then he worked in Topeka, Kan., for three years before returning to the Pittsburgh airwaves.

Bowman has no special plans for retirement — other than not needing to wake up early enough to be on the air at 4:30 a.m.

George Guido is a contributing writer for Trib Total Media.

---

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)

---