The weather was more than fodder for small talk to Richard Weaver.
\nThe Dale Enterprise resident spent the better part of his life documenting the Valley\u2019s changing conditions for one of the country\u2019s oldest weather stations, a family affair since its establishment shortly after the Civil War ended.<\/p>\n
But Weaver, who died Sunday at age 94, was much more than a volunteer weatherman. He also served as a Mennonite preacher and was a ham radio enthusiast, among other accomplishments.<\/p>\n
In 1946, Weaver married his wife, Virginia, who survives. It was about that time he began working with her family at the Dale Enterprise Weather Station, just west of Harrisonburg off U.S. 33.<\/p>\n
Virginia Weaver\u2019s grandfather, L.J. Heatwole, started keeping weather records in 1868. In the 1880s, the U.S. Signal Service, predecessor of the National Weather Service, appointed Heatwole as a \u201cvoluntary observer.\u201d
\nIn the mid-1980s, Richard Weaver became the station\u2019s lead observer, a post he held until he retired in 2012 after nearly 60 years of daily weather observations.<\/p>\n
At the time, the station \u2014 one of more than 11,000 in the U.S. \u2014 was the oldest one operating in Virginia and the third oldest in the nation.
\nAnother of Weaver\u2019s passions was ham radio. He became a licensed operator in 1936 and was an active member of the amateur radio community throughout his life.<\/p>\n
Gerry Brunk, 77, of Harrisonburg, said Weaver gave him his first radio license exam in 1955.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve known him since I was a teenager. We knew each other through ham radio and also through the Mennonite community\u201d Brunk said. \u201cHe was an outgoing person, a very spiritual and giving person who loved his community and who loved music.\u201d<\/p>\n
Weaver was a part of the Mennonite Hour radio program, and in 1954, when he worked for the show as a recording engineer, he converted his chicken house into a recording studio that improved the quality of the recorded program.<\/p>\n
Another radio enthusiast, Ellsworth Neff, also met Weaver as a teenager interested in amateur radio.<\/p>\n
\u201cI met Dick in 1954 or so and we\u2019ve stayed in touch ever since,\u201d said Neff, 75, of Mount Crawford. \u201cThere hasn\u2019t been a stretch of time where we weren\u2019t in contact, and we\u2019ve spent many hours having conversations over the airwaves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Weaver even presided over Neff\u2019s marriage to his wife, Jeanette, in 2000.
\n\u201cI joked to Dick that he could marry us as long as I didn\u2019t have to drive a horse and buggy,\u201d Neff said. \u201cHe was Mennonite and I\u2019m a member of the Church of the Brethren. Dick thought it was hilarious.\u201d<\/p>\n
Neff said Weaver\u2019s impact on the community is immeasurable.
\n\u201cThere\u2019s no doubt our community won\u2019t be the same without him,\u201d he said.
\nWeaver graduated from Eastern Mennonite High School and attended Eastern Mennonite College.<\/p>\n
A conscientious objector, Weaver was drafted during World War II and stationed at Harrisburg State Mental Hospital in Pennsylvania and then in Medaryville, Ind., where he banded birds.<\/p>\n
He was ordained as a minister by lot in Virginia Mennonite Conference in 1948 and retired in 1995 after 40 years of service.<\/p>\n