Bernard Norman Meisner

Having checked off the last item on his bucket list, Bernard N Meisner died peacefully on August 20, 2026 in Bedford, TX at the age of 77.

 He hoped to be remembered as a teacher, mentor and cookie baker. Bernard is survived by his sister, Ursula Chandler of Rockledge, Florida, four cousins, and ten first cousins once removed. He was preceded in death by his parents. 

Bernard was born on March 29, 1949 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Bernard Andrew and Ursula Mary O’Hara Meisner. He was a graduate of South Allegheny High School in southwestern Pennsylvania. He was the class correspondent for his graduating class at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where he majored in physics and German. He later studied meteorology in the tropics, earning a M.S. and Ph.D. at the University of Hawaii. He retired in 2014 from the National Weather Service’s Southern Region Headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas.

During his career, Bernard earned a reputation as an outstanding scientist, educator and innovative manager. As chief of the NWS Southern Region Science and Training Branch, he was responsible for professional training, technological applications and collaboration with the academic community. His duties included providing training and technical support for nearly 1,000 meteorologists and hydrologists in ten states, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Bernard taught physics, physical science, and earth & space science in the Pittsburgh public schools; meteorology at the Universities of Texas and Oklahoma; and meteorology, weather communications, and astronomy at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, where he also served as chair of the Meteorology Department.

He conducted research at the Joint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research in Honolulu, Hawaii; the National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center in Washington, DC; and, the USDA Forest Service's Forest Fire Laboratory in Riverside, California.

With particular interests in tropical meteorology, fire weather, numerical weather prediction and applied climatology, he was the author of dozens of articles in scientific and professional publications, and numerous webinars. Bernard was elected a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society in 1997 and had been certified as a Consulting Meteorologist by that Society since 1989.

His most cherished honors included a NOAA Administrator’s Award “for consistently providing an exceptionally high level of scientific and service support to the NWS field offices,” a Carnegie Mellon University Alumni Merit Award “for exceptional accomplishment in his chosen profession,” the American Meteorological Society’s Francis W. Reichelderfer Award "for providing excellent support and devoting his professional life to the nation's environmental services,” and the National Weather Association’s Member of the Year “for his significant contributions to the Association.”

Growing up in Pittsburgh Bernard got to enjoy Mr. Rogers before most children, since Fred and his puppets appeared on a local children's show, The Children's Corner, about a decade before the debut of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. He was shocked, as only a six year old boy might be, when he heard King Friday the 13th announce it was Barbara Meisner’s birthday!

Bernard first entered the workforce when, at the age of nine, he began delivering the McKeesport Daily News and Pittsburgh Press newspapers to a route of approximately sixty homes every day for the next six and a half years. He recalled one of the streets was so steep they didn’t even attempt to drive cars up it after heavy snows. His meager earnings were particularly valuable to the family during the 116-day steelworkers’ strike later that year.

His curiosity in weather began on his paper route, as he timed the flash-to-bangs during the frequent summer “5 o’clock storms,” as his mother called them. While in high school he built a Heathkit radio that had a weather band. The high school courses he taught included chapters on meteorology which solidified his interest. A racial riot in the school were he was student teaching, having his car stolen and stripped, and being knocked unconscious by a student, led him to decide it might be preferable to teach more mature student, which would require additional graduate degrees. He read in a book he found in the Carnegie Library, “If you’re going to study the weather, do it in a place where you like the weather.” Having endured his quota of Pittsburgh winters, he applied to the Universities of Florida State, Arizona, and Hawaii.

Upon retiring at the age of 65, Bernard continued to teach, choosing genealogy as his topic. He was a popular lecturer at genealogical societies throughout Texas. He began researching his family’s history more than 25 years ago and enjoyed sharing lessons learned from those experiences, including his mistakes. Although he knew only one grandparent (his maternal grandfather) he successfully identified all of his great-great grandparents and some of their parents and grandparents.

Bernard was told the first word he spoke was “cookie,” and initially served as his mother’s cookie taster. He inherited her recipe files after her death and for over 33 years he supplied his co-workers with homemade cookies every Monday, even on those weeks when he was on travel, never repeating a recipe in any given year. Once, on a visit to National Weather Service Headquarters, Bernard and his then supervisor Francis Fujioka encountered a meteorologist who had worked in the same building as Bernard across town ten years previously. Upon seeing Bernard, Francis recalled the man said, “I know you! You’re the cookie guy!” 

Bernard enjoyed travel and had visited every state, all seven continents, nearly every town called “Pittsburg[h]” in the U.S., and at least one community that shared a name with each of the planets in our solar system, including Pluto, West Virginia.

He also was a train buff, happily riding on many tourist railroads and operating his model railroad. His favorite cartoon character was Snoopy, and he was disappointed to discover that no dogs, not even beagles, are permitted inside the Charles Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, Calif.

Bernard was a longtime fan of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Steelers, with fond memories of the 1960 Pirates’ World Series victory over the New York Yankees, and the Steelers six Super Bowl wins, all of which occurred after he had moved from Pittsburgh.

 A memorial service is scheduled for {time and date} at {location}, with a reception to follow at {location}. {Title} {Name} will officiate the ceremony. All are welcome to attend and celebrate Bernard’s life. His ashes will be buried with his parents’ graves in St. Mary’s Cemetery in Pittsburgh. In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the Leonard Gelfand Center at Carnegie Mellon University in support of their K-12 educational programs. The family would like to thank {caregivers/hospital staff/etc.} for {his/her/their} {efforts/care/dedication}.