Former Brandon TV weatherman loses battle with cancer

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This article was published 16/01/2011 (5736 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BRANDON — The man who brought Brandon its weather forecasts for 37 years died on Sunday morning after a battle with cancer.

Ron Thompson was best known for ending his upbeat weather reports on the now defunct CKX TV station with the phrase his friends say best described his attitude to life: “Easy does it, my friends.”

“I would have to say his eternal optimism is what I’ll remember,” said Debbie Folk, a former on-air host at CKX. “He was an amazing person whose spirit in the past few years was inspirational.

“It would be easy to be angry and bitter given what he went through, but he wasn’t. He came a long way and was very happy in the last years of his life and that’s comforting.”

His stature within the Westman community was such that he remained the name most associated with CKX for years after he retired.

“There’s a lot of people who were touched by his illness and certainly will be by his death,” former CKX Noon Show host Karen Chrest said. “Just hearing about the number of well-wishers that came to visit him when he was still able to have visitors, it was such a broad range of people. People from media, it was people from the musical community. It was people that flew because he had a pilot’s license. I think he felt that.”

A longtime television news and weather reporter, Thompson also lent his voice to radio, where he was a station program director and announcer. Throughout his career, he also mentored the next generation of broadcasters.

“He was just so positive,” said former CKX station manager Alan Cruise, who worked with Thompson for 26 years. “He was a real leader at the station and was a mentor to all the young people that came. He took them all under his wing and they got to see how professional he was. He absolutely loved what he did and that was the hallmark of everyone who succeeded at the station.”

When not in front of a camera, Thompson loved to play the guitar and often jammed with the Westman Pickers.

Cruise said Thompson was 68 and did his best to comfort those concerned about his terminal illness.

“He was still talking about going on his next cruise and how it would be a real dandy,” said Cruise, the Brandon Sun’s newspaper sales and distribution manager.

“He’s the guy that wouldn’t want anyone moaning and groaning that he had passed away. He was a great guy.”

Funeral arrangements were not available at press time.

kborkowsky@brandonsun.com