WNDU's Gary Sieber sifts through his forecast poems for 'The Weather Could Be Verse'

Gary Sieber has been part of our television lives for 40 or so years at WNDU-TV. He did a lot of things there, including reporter, news director, managing editor, and a professor when teaching broadcasting and ethics at the University of Notre Dame. He received high praise and awards for that news and writing work.

He now works for Welch Packaging in national sales.

Some of us know him as the person who could turn a phrase, craft a sentence and make us think or laugh at the annual and greatly lamented Press Club Gridiron shows. People appreciated his ability to write. In fact, people were known to say, “That Gary should work at a newspaper.”

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Alas, he was doomed to television.

Yet, all that aside, he is best known as the poetry/weather guy on Saturday morning news on WNDU. He figures he has written about 5,000 little poems about the weather, news, holidays and sports over the years. But there is more to the story than that.

Wait, we will have a commercial break. Now you can read some of Gary’s best poetry, back stories and funny illustrations in the recently published book “The Weather Could Be Verse.” It is all for a good cause. The proceeds will go to The Acting Ensemble, a local theater group in Mishawaka.

Gary has close ties to the ensemble through his wife Linda, who serves on the board of directors.

The book can be purchased through www.theweathercouldbeverse.com for $21.50. It is also available at InRug Co, 220 E. Mishawaka Ave., Mishawaka.

Gary said he was often asked about doing a book of weather poetry. “If I had a nickel each time I heard that question, I’d have $1.75 by now.” In reality, he said, he was waiting for a cause or a charity that could benefit. “It was the right time to help a local group.”

Gary said the idea was proposed by Melissa Gard, executive director of the ensemble, and others. It took some work to select the best, and Gary is happy that it is done. “The work included footnotes to accompany some of the poetry to give a context,” he said.

The illustrations were done by J. Scott Brink and Eric Walton. Scott was a photographer at WNDU for a number of years. Eric, who worked as a photographer and artist, was known for his drawings of courtroom drama.

Other illustrations come from the hand of Miranda Sieber, who is the daughter of the writer and a costume designer.

So how did this all begin? It all began with Dick Addis, Gary said. For those who are unfamiliar, Mr. Addis was the long-time weather man at WNDU. Dick used a weather word with each broadcast to summarize the conditions. One day the word was “ill.” Dick was in the hospital.

Gary was familiar with the computer graphics equipment used for the weather. That meant, Gary was the go-to guy for weather until Dick came back.

With this, Gary needed to provide a weather word for continuity. Our guy in words came up with some uncommon words a few times and then he used a poem as a closer. Then his time was done with forecasting when Dick returned to the station.

A new idea came to the news director — a Saturday news broadcast. Gary and his poems were part of the package. “It was not something I strived for. I was a news guy.” That didn’t matter. So that’s how he produced 5,000 poems.

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Gary starts Saturdays early, about 3 a.m. There is weather prep, check the charts and poem writing to do. The rule is the poem should come easily. If it isn’t working and there is a struggle — stop, he said. “I like punny ones; bad dad jokes.”

A good bad joke goes a long way to entertain and inform. The weather is made less verse with Gary.

■■■

Another Gard. We talked briefly about Melissa Gard a few paragraphs back. Now it is time to remember her mom, Elinor Gard. Elinor deserves to be remembered fondly and often. She was the wife of Ray Gard, who was an editor and writer at The Tribune. She died at the end of October. She was 94.

She parachuted from a plane for her 90th birthday. She said at the time I couldn’t write about it because it wasn’t a news story. I begged to differ.

Elinor had a spirit that lit up the room. She got things done. The Gards and a committee of Lydick residents got a park built on Edison Road. Today, the park has baseball fields, playground equipment and picnic tables. A bonus for a small town.

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Elinor was a longtime member of the Lydick United Methodist Church. She started a cookie walk fundraiser more than 20 years ago. Back then, the money was used for scholarships. Today, for general church upkeep.

In honor of Elinor, the church continued the cookie walk tradition. Church members Karen Trzaskowski, Cathy Rider and Karen Swisher were sorting and preparing for the event in early December. “It takes three of us to fill the shoes of Elinor. She was a firecracker.”

The tradition will continue in Elinor’s honor.

Contact Kathy at kfborlik@yahoo.com.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: WNDU's Sieber releases weather poems; cookie walk continues