In Our Own Words...

As the National Weather Service celebrates its 150th Anniversary in 2020, NWS employees and retirees are sharing their own memories and thoughts about our heritage. Read their stories in their own words below.

We at the NWS Heritage Project can’t complete such an enormous task without you! Whether you’re a current or former employee of the NWS, your memories and stories help us better understand the history of our agency, how we got to where we are today, and where we will go next. If you’re interested in writing a story or even providing us with some background information on an event, technology, era, or other memory from your time at the NWS, please check out the following guide and forms:

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Mary Glackin

Mary Glackin

Decades of Service in Advancing Modernization Efforts

Editor’s Note: In 2010, NOAA Office of Atmospheric Research Communications Director Barry Reichenbaugh recorded a series of oral histories with key researchers and others involved in the National Weather Service Modernization and Associated Restructuring, or MAR, during the 1980s and 90s. These oral histories have been republished on the Voices of NOAA website. Reichenbaugh retired in 2018; we are indebted to him for undertaking this important project.

As the National Weather Service moved into the massive transitional phase known as the Modernization and Associated Restructuring era, it quickly became clear that those with vision, determination, experience, and big-picture thinking would help to guide the agency through the coming changes. One of these individuals was Mary Glackin.

Glackin served in many different roles at the NWS, working as a meteorologist, a supervisory meteorologist, and a computer specialist before eventually assuming the role of NOAA Deputy Undersecretary of Oceans and Atmosphere. Over her decades of service to the agency, Glackin was heavily involved in several important projects like AFOS, AWIPS, and PROFS, all of which advanced the modernization efforts. 

Here are two excerpts from her interview recorded in June 2010:

On the importance of having a clear vision for a program:

“I think one of the guiding things about the modernization was a very clear vision of what you’re trying - what we were trying to accomplish. And we really had a mantra, which is - was, you know, improve services to do that, by bringing together technology, improving the skill sets of our personnel, to be able to do that and improving observing capacity. So all of those pieces were in there and I think it really was the ingredients I think for a good program.”

On how it felt to work during the MAR:

“What a real kind of pleasure and honor it was for me to work on the modernization. I think it gave me a wonderful chance to work with some leaders that I think were very visionary. It gave me a chance to look at really an overall program that was put together so well, with people and technology and a very active communication outreach engagement component to it. And most importantly, it resulted in such a tangible result and benefit for the American Public. You know, so many lives saved and so many dollars as well.”

Resources and Additional Reading