Longtime Boston meteorologist Dick Albert dies, 72

NEEDHAM, Mass. (AP) — Longtime Boston television meteorologist Dick Albert has died of complications from pneumonia.

WCVB-TV, where Albert worked for 31 years until his retirement in 2009, announced Albert's death on Friday. He was 72. Albert, known as “Dickie,” joined the station in 1978, and became one of the most recognized personalities on Boston television. He called his work his vocation and his lifelong avocation, and said upon his retirement that his career had been a gift.

Harvey Leonard, WCVB's current chief meteorologist, called his death a difficult loss. He said Albert was one of a kind and could make anyone laugh.

“Just had a tremendous passion for weather, for people, for his family, and had a unique but genuine way of presenting the weather that all of us loved so much, and will always remember and will definitely miss,” Leonard told the station.

Anative of Newton, Albert won multiple regional Emmys and the prestigious Silver Circle Award for Lifetime Achievement by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in 2004.

He was voted the second most popular weathercaster in the nation by “Television/Radio Age” in 1987.

Before joining WCVB, Albert worked at KOA-TV in Denver, now KCNC-TV, at KRON-TV in San Francisco and KOB-TV in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He also served as a forecaster for the U.S. Air Force.