"June Bacon Bercey"{1932}

 Was the only African-American woman to earn a degree in meteorology in the 1950s.She went on to become the first female television meteorologist in the country by assuming the position of

weather caster in Buffalo,New York, in 1970.Two years later she was honored as the first African American and the first woman to earn the American Meteorological Society's Seal of Approval for excellence in television weather casting.Throughout her career,June spent time in government service,working for the National Weather Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency.She has worked in research,forecasting,weather casting,and public affairs and has also been active in professional associations,including the American Meteorology Society Board on women and minorities,of which she was a founding member.After over three decades in the field of Meteorology,June retired and became a consultant and an educator,dedicating much of her time encouraging women and minorities to pursue degrees and careers in meteorology.June was born in Wichita Kansas.Her father was an attorney and her mother was a music teacher.She was an only child who enjoyed bike riding, hiking,playing the piano,and participating in Girl Scout activities.She was excluded from many other activities as a child because her parents were very strict and because of the racism of the 1940s and 1950s.This isolation allowed her to develop discipline and good study habits that would help her later in life.June became interested in science in high school.She spent a brief period in Florida where she attended a segregated high school.Blacks in that school were not encouraged in the subjects of math,physics, and chemistry,June lost some of her passion for science for a short time. When she returned to a racially mixed school in Kansas where those subjects were taught vigorously, her enthusiasm for science returned.It was a physics teacher who noticed June interest in water displacement and buoyancy and who encouraged her to consider a career in meteorology.Her parents supported her career choice and encouraged her to pursue her education.She attended the University of California in Los Angeles,where she majored in math and meteorology,fields where women were traditionally looked down upon.One of her teachers even suggested that she take sewing instead of meteorology.June told Contemporary Black Biography (CBB),when she earned an "A" in thermodynamics and a "B" in home economics,she knew that her decision to pursue a degree in science was the right one.June excelled in her classes and did not get distracted by all of the social activities that college had to offer because she was used to spending her time reading and studying;a result of her parents' discipline.June graduated with a Bachelor of Science with honors in 1954 and went on on to earn a Masters of Science degree in meteorology in 1955.After earing  her degrees,June worked as a meteorologist for the National Meteorologist Center in Washington,D.C.,from 1956 until 1962.In this position she processed records of tides and currents and produced ocean survey briefs.June also prepared weather forecasting reports and she was eventually promoted to be the principal forecaster for a five-state area.she also worked as a radar meteorologist and she was responsible for analyzing radar pictures to determine the time and intensity of developing storms.In 1962 she went to work for the Sperry Rand Corporation as a consultant. In this capacity June worked on a variety of projects,including monitoring the paths of underwater objects by sound and studying the effects of temperature on the detection of movement.She also worked as a consultant for the Atomic Energy Commission,June met George W. Brewer, an atomic scientist who later became a lawyer.They eventually married and the couple had two children, Dail ST Claire and Dawn-Maire.In 1970 June began working for an NBC television station in Buffalo,New York,as a correspondent on scientific news,and she hosted a daily  consumer television program.Soon after she began working at the station,the current weathercaster,who had a chronic gambling program,was fired promptly when he was arrested for robbery.The station needed someone to fill his position in a hurry and June was the obvious choice since she had a degree in meteorology.She was so adept at the job that she became the station's chief meteorologist,one of the first African-American women to hold such a position.She was not just a pretty weathergirl,she was also knowledgeable and artculate about the science behind the weather forecasts.In 1972 June became the first African-American and woman to earn the American Meteorological Society's Seal of Approval for excellence in television weather casting.According to June,only six women had earned this distinction by 2002.From 1974 to 1975 June worked as a professional lecturer meteorology.She then returned to the National Weather Service to work as a meteorologist and a broadcaster.In 1979 June began working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA).She started out as a public affairs specialist who conducted press conferences and educated the public about environment and meteorological issues.She was then promoted to chief of radio and television services.In this capacity she conducted weather briefings for researchers,forecasters,businesses,the government,and the media.June also returned to school to earn a Master's of  Public Administration from the University of Southern California in 1979.She was well aware of the significance of being the first African-American woman to gain professional recognition and public acceptance in her field.She used her fame to encourage other women and minorities to follow in her footsteps. In 1975 June helped found the American Meteorological Society(AMS) Board on Women and minorities to increase the number of women and minorities in the atmospheric science.It is difficult to calculate the exact number of black scientists in the field at that time,a 1974 study by the National Science Foundation estimated that only 2.6 percent off all scientists in the United States were black and only one percent of all meteorologist nationwide were black.