Former KDKA-TV meteorologist Bob Kudzma, who retired from the station in 2002 after 34 years on the air, died from cancer Thursday at age 81.

A New Hampshire native, Kudzma earned a degree in mathematics from the University of New Hampshire and entered the Air Force, which sent him to Texas A&M University to study meteorology. Kudzma served in Vietnam, forecasting the weather in advance of bombing missions.

Kudzma achieved the rank of captain before leaving the Air Force to work as a meteorologist for United Airlines in Chicago. He arrived at KDKA in December 1968. It was his first time delivering weather forecasts on television.

“Talk about being scared,” Kudzma said of his first broadcast in a 2002 interview. “I’ll never forget that as long as I live. I was really bad, terrible. I could barely stand; my knees were weak. At least I got through it. It took me months before I relaxed.”

Aviva Radbord, KDKA’s former public affairs producer and weekend assignment editor, remembered Kudzma as a forecaster with great credibility.

“He didn’t take himself seriously but he took the weather very seriously,” she said, “and he took the work very seriously.”

In 2002, the no-nonsense Kudzma said getting a forecast wrong ate at him after the fact.

“I’ve never gotten over the fact that a forecast I’ve made has been wrong,” he said. “My wife knows. I get grumpy and upset. I’ve never been able to handle that well. People think it upsets them, but it upsets me 10 times more because I feel like I’ve let them down.”

It’s so sad to me that Ray Tannehill, Patti Burns, Al Julius, Wayne Van Dine and Now Bob Kudzma are all gone!! I was so in awe of that team when I started here @KDKA

— Bob Pompeani (@KDPomp) February 25, 2021

With a dry wit and gentle demeanor, Kudzma avoided sensationalizing forecasts, erring on the side of optimism, hence the nickname “the Sunshine Kid,” bestowed upon him by the late KDKA news anchor Bob Perkins.

“Sometimes you get burned, but most of the time it works out fine,” said Kudzma, who took pride in his accurate forecast about the blizzard of March 1993 that dumped two feet of snow on the region.

Former KDKA news anchor Patrice King Brown called Kudzma a man of great integrity whose daughter, Kerri, ended up as a babysitter for King Brown’s children.

“If you were looking for a good man, he was absolutely it, the epitome of it,” she said. “He was a caring, professional guy who couldn’t have been more friendly, couldn’t have been more fun.”

King Brown said when she moved from hosting “Pittsburgh 2Day” to the anchor desk and to news, Kudzma provided moral support.

“There were many challenges and many people were not as encouraging,” she said. “He was encouraging, telling me things I might do, making suggestions, saying, ‘How did you feel about that?’ and analyzing things. He really, truly was wonderful.”

Retired KDKA reporter Harold Hayes remembers watching Kudzma on TV when Hayes was in middle school in the late 1960s, even remembering that Kudzma followed Stuart Soroka as station meteorologist. At the time Hayes was starting to get interested in a career in media. About a decade later, Hayes was hired to work at KDKA.

“There I am with Bill and Patti Burns and Bob Kudzma, that was heady stuff for me at 26 years old,” Hayes said. “Bob was always just so down to earth.”

Hayes said Kudzma adopted Pitt football as his team and back in the Pitt Stadium days, Kudzma and wife Charlene would occasionally attend games with Hayes and his wife.

“He was just a regular guy,” Hayes said. “He was a nice guy. There aren’t necessarily a lot of nice people in broadcasting – I know you’re shocked – but he truly was.”

Three years before he retired from KDKA at age 63, Kudzma began driving a school bus for Bethel Park Public Schools. He continued that job after retirement until covid-19 concerns led him to stop driving for the district in 2020.

“It was his dream as a kid,” said photographer Duane Rieder, Kudzma’s son-in-law. “It wasn’t being a weatherman, his dream job was driving the school bus. He loved the kids and joking with them and the parents loved him. They remembered him from the weather.”

Kudzma is survived by his wife of 59 years, Charlene; son Bobby Kudzma of Mt. Lebanon; daughters Kate Rieder of Bloomfield, Alesia DeChicchis of Mt. Washington and Kerri Michener of Upper St. Clair and seven grandchildren. A memorial service will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers, the family asks for donations to the Vietnam Veterans of America (vva.org/donate).

You can reach TV writer Rob Owen at rowen@triblive.com or 412-380-8559. Follow Rob on Twitter or Facebook. Ask TV questions by email or phone. Please include your first name and location.

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