Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Teeter honored for 35-years of service

For the past 35 years, John Teeter has been providing weather information to the National Weather Service from Prescott.

For much longer, he has been a fixture in Prescott, as a businessman and member of various boards and groups.

In recognition of his years of service, a reception was held in Teeter's honor Thursday, July 26, with nearly 100 people gathering in the Fellowship Hall at the First United Methodist Church.

Prescott Mayor Howard Taylor said Teeter has been a great servant of the community, and there was no way to express what he wanted to say and it be proper to Teeter and the service he's provided. "He will be missed."

Davis Benton, local meteorologist, said Teeter can't be replaced, but Philip McAdams will be taking over weather duties for him.

Teeter's record, he said, is like a history book, as he's been active in the Boy Scouts, taught Sunday school at the FUMC, owned and operated a business and was on most boards in the county at one time or another.

Under Teeter's leadership, Benton said, Nevada County had one of the first severe weather watch groups in the state, with volunteers going out and looking for tornadoes.

About 15 years ago, he continued, Teeter was instrumental in the county getting an optical counter for counting election ballots.

Now, Nevada County is consistently one of the first in the state to get its election results in to Little Rock.

Along with all this, he said, Teeter is also the local historian and has worked at the Depot Museum for several years.

Benton's act was followed by Mary Godwin, executive director of the Prescott-Nevada County Chamber of Commerce, who presented Teeter with a plaque of appreciation.

"I found out a long time ago," Teeter said, "to get these things you just need to be quiet and stay out of trouble. I haven't been quiet, and will put this on the wall for everyone to see."

Jim Lenderman, pastor of the FUMC, said he's known Teeter for four years and Teeter's always had an opinion on something and lets people know about it."

Lee Harrison, meteorologist in charge of the Shreveport, La. National Weather Service station, said when tornadoes move through an area the NWS does a storm survey.

This consists of physically taking measurements of where the twister touched down, how wide it was, its path of destruction and when it lifted again.

But, he said, in 1997, when the tornado touched down in Nevada County, Teeter did the storm survey, and was so accurate the NWS didn't need to come to the county.

"Of the 162 weather observers we have in our area," he said, "Teeter is the only one to send us a storm survey."

In addition, during the 97 twisters, the NWS was getting conflicting reports about a possible death in Nevada County. Harrison called Teeter, who said one person had been injured in a pickup, but no one had been killed.

Marion Kuykendall, the data program manager with the NWS, called Teeter one of the best observers they had. "We hate to lose him."

Kuykendall and Harrison presented Teeter with gifts as well, including a plaque, and a 35-year lapel pin, along with a pen and coffee mug.

"Thank you all very much," Teeter said. "My dad was in the Bodcaw tornado of 1915, and every time a cloud came up after that, he'd run out and look. I guess I inherited part of my concern about the weather."